W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings

One of my favorite Burt Reynolds' movies...Saw it for the first time at a drive-in movie theater in Central Ohio. One of my favorite memories is the laughter coming from my parents and I because we had lived in TN and got the humor. The local audience in OH missed it.

This & "White Lightning" are my all-time favorite Burt Reynolds films. this is at the height of his comedic, feel-good roles. Not many actors are as likable as Burt, which makes this goofy film a treat. Burt plays W.W. Bright, an ex-S.O.S. gas station employee who goes around robbing his old employers. A conman & loner, well at least he was before he ran into Dixie & the Dancekings. Pretending to be a Nashville music agent, he gets tangled in lies & cons, & before too long he gets attached to the band. Now he'll do as much as possible to help them out. Lots of fun!

I saw this movie when it first came out and enjoyed it from the opening scene. The sounds are so grounded in country it is had to explain to someone who has never lived in the south. Regardless, this was a production worth the money and found no reason why it did not take off at the box office. Jerry Reed is great, Don Williams is superb and Connie Van Dyke did the best she could do and for me that was enough. Of course I have always liked Richard Hurst especially as the father to Michael J. fox in the Werewolf movies he made. Art Carney, what can you say about this man, always puts his soul into a performance and he surely did that in this one. I have attempted many times to purchase a copy of it and could not locate it so if any one may know where I might buy a DVD of this great movie please let me know.

It's a Burt Reynolds showcase. He plays the charming rogue to the hilt, a perpetual grin on that care-free mug. As the rootless WW, he tools around the South in a flashy car, sticking up gas stations in, yes, friendly fashion. However, it's really one of those big corporations, viz. SOS, that he picks on since he's got a grudge against their heartless ways. But then he hooks up with a promising hillbilly band The Dixie Dancekings, promoting their career in his inimitable way. That is, when he's not sticking up SOS banks, again,in friendly fashion. But the big boys in suits don't take kindly to his spree. So they sic a Bible spouting gumshoe (Carney) on his trail, a Deacon in black who looks like he's practicing for the Evil Dead.

I expect a movie like this, filled with Southern stereotypes plus Reynolds smashing his share of hot cars, is mainly a matter of taste. But I found the general goofiness hard to resist. It's a perfect role for Reynold's brand of leering charm. At the same time, it's an uptight Art Carney, a million miles from his good-natured dimwit Ed Norton of the Honeymooners. Of course, there's the usual amount of car bashing and Keystone Cop car chases for a Reynolds movie. Plus, I really like the slow, engaging way WW takes over the fortunes of the Dixie Dancekings. You just know they'll make it big, but will the non-musical WW with the Deacon on his trail.

All in all, the movie's an entertaining 90-minutes of Reynolds nonsense, despite my better judgment.

this film has such a mediocre rating. It's a fine night's entertainment and it takes us back to an earlier time in country music before every big and medium-size city had its country station. The important thing is not to lose patience during the first half, when it seems like it will be forever before they get their act on the road, and pay no mind to the back story about the Southern Oil Company....in fact the 'hold up' of the bank really doesn't fit the rest of the film, it is almost too surreal, like Burt's Olds. Reynolds comes off like the poor man's Sam Phillips, getting these crackers onto Grand Ole Opry, and that moment when he spurns Van Dyke's advances as he hears the boys launching into something that sounds like music is stirring.

That era is gone, but treasure the final scenes when Art Carney's car radio pulls in sounds from the ether that you won't hear today on the airwaves, where every voice comes out of broadcasting school. Rate this somewhere about 7 on a scale of 10.