Norwood

This movie from Charles Portis' novel starts out ok with Glenn Campbell's return to his hometown and some amusing stuff with his obnoxious brother in law and the always oleaginously wonderful Pat Hingle as a con artist. But, paradoxically, as soon as this road picture goes on the road things start to get drained of interest and it is hard to pick a Most Boring among the three girls with whom the title character gets involved; Carol Lynley as a bad tempered, small town floozie, Tisha Stirling as a cynical hippie or Kim Darby's good natured country gal. Campbell's performance is serviceable at best and throughout the film director Jack Haley Jr and screenwriter Marguerite Roberts, the later of whom did such a good job adapting Portis' "True Grit", lays the hick schtick on thicker than congealed Crisco so that you feel at times like you're watching "Petticoat Junction: The Movie". Bottom line: Read the novel and get Portis' quirky insights without all the stupid Hollywood crap, like Central California standing in for Tennessee and being asked to buy Dom De Louise, with his Brooklyn accent, as a Nebraskan. Give it a C.

Some of the people from in front of and behind the camera of True Grit bring us this easy going country story starring Glen Campbell and Kim Darby. It's not quite in the same caliber as True Grit however.

Glen Campbell is returning from Vietnam to his home in the metropolis of Ralph, Texas which is a stone's throw from the Arkansas border. He goes his separate ways from Joe Namath a fellow Marine and returns home to his sister Leigh French and drip of a brother-in-law Dom DeLuise. Glen is never without his guitar and never turns down a song request. However he'd like to make a living at it and hopes to get a big break on the Louisiana Hayride country radio show, a rival of sorts to the Grand Ole Opry.

After that it's an episodic adventure with him delivering a stolen car from conman Pat Hingle to New York, of course Glen doesn't find out it's stolen until he's on the road. During the course of the film he gets involved with would be actress Carol Lynley, hippie chick Tisha Sterling, and eager young bride Kim Darby. Guess whom he winds up with.

Glen's singing of several country/western ballads makes the film easy to take and glosses over a lot of his lack of acting ability. Had he come along thirty years earlier Campbell might have been a good singing cowboy star, but those days have passed. No real plot in Norwood just a series of incidents on his journey to New York and back.

Whatever else it is Norwood is not True Grit, but Glen Campbell fans might like it.

Having previously done True Grit, star Glen Campbell had something of a reunion with some of that movie's people: screenwriter Marguerite Roberts with her once again adapting from Charles Portis' novel, producer Hal Wallis, and co-star Kim Darby. Since neither of them have John Wayne around this time, Ms. Darby acquits herself quite nicely as the romantic lead while Campbell at least sings some good songs and puts more of his personality around to make up for his lacking acting skills. Making his debut here is Joe Namath-a hot football star at the time-who also uses his persona to mask his lesser thespian talents. Much of the supporting cast, like Tisha Sterling, Meredith MacRae, Leigh French, Pat Hingle, and Billy Curtis provide welcome turns. Dom DeLuise is especially hilarious as Glen's brother-in-law. Only real irritating presence was Carol Lynley as Laverne...actually, Yvonne-a real stick-in-the-mud complainer and I really hated it when she mentioned New Orleans, which is a two-hour drive from where I live, as her home. In summary, Norwood is an amiable pleaser of a comedy. Directed by Jack Haley Jr. whose father Jack Haley Sr. has a nice cameo. P.S. Sorry to hear of Mr. Campbell's recent revelation of Alzheimer's. Hope he doesn't suffer too much from it.

Glen Campbell and Joe Nameth, both in their career primes, give surprisingly creditable acting performances about two Marines just back from the Viet-Nam War finding their places back in society. The theme of this film is somewhat out-dated, yet with the current war in Iraq raging on, maybe it's not as out-dated as I think. Campbell is Norwood and has the major role, while Joe Nameth has more like a guest staring part. Campbell embarks on a road trip and meets a host of different people. Trish Sterling looks beautiful, but is really wasted here. Coogan's Bluff still rates as her best on-screen role. I saw this film as a young teenager at the Cinema Theater on Miami Beach. I remember liking it a lot and sort of wondering if I would one day be living this type of experience myself. With the draft and the war, this film was very realistic for the times, now not so much. Yet, it's an enjoyable film on the same take as Bus Riley's Back in Town.

I just wrote a long, long review of Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway and I have just about ten lines of blathering left in me, so here goes! I saw Norwood over thirty years ago on ABC and I still have a fond memory of it. I barely remember the plot, but I do know I thought the story of a just-back-from-Vietnam soldier (Glen Campbell) on some sort of road trip was a pleasant use of my time.

The film has an interesting cast including Kim Darby, Joe Namath, and Tisha Sterling. There is a moment where Campbell says the "S" word and Darby scolds him for his bad language (ABC bleeped out the word, but you could tell exactly what he said).

I won't fool you--this is all I remember, but I intend to add it to my mail-order movie rental queue--not super high on priority, but above The Notebook!