The Legend of McCullough's Mountain (1975)

Why so much hype?

the audience applauded

hyped garbage

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This refreshingly playful and tongue-in-cheek romp is part fact, part fiction and all enjoyable in its pleasingly facetious telling of a legendary backwoods Bigfoot who periodically pops up in the Georgia forest around an equally mythical mountain to scare the hell out of the local yokels. Klutzy middle-aged newspaper copy boy Bestoink Dooley (winningly played by George Ellis), eager to nail a hot scoop, goes venturing up into the hills to find out if the stories about Mr. Out of Control Excess Body Hair have any basis in truth. Director Massey Cramer displays a light, frothy touch throughout (Cramer co-wrote and produced the merely okay dope deal opus "The Florida Connection"). Joseph Shelton's sometimes sharp cinematography offers some eye-catching visuals of the eerily calm lakes and woods, plus several creepy shots of the creature prowling around the dense, fog-shrouded forest. A spooky atmosphere is effectively developed and the monster attack scenes are executed with a goodly amount of punch. Former yo-yo champion, spookshow performer, soft-core writer/director/producer and all-around extraordinary cinematic jack-of-all-trades exploitation huckster par excellence Donn Davison (who's billed here as a "world traveler, lecturer, and psychic investigator") clearly shot inserts for this little killer-diller; they were probably done for a belated 70's release in order to cash in on the then scorching hot Sasquatch craze. Davison makes for a wryly entertaining host as he cites facts about Bigfoot which include the famous Teddy Roosevelt incident and conducts droll interviews with wide-eyed folks who've had scary run-ins with the beast ("Is this gonna be on television?," one awestruck gal asks Davison at the end of her interview). Tim York's tuneful'n'twangy country theme song "The Ballad of McCullough's Mountain" smokes in no uncertain terms ("Some say he breathed fire like a dragon/Some say a giant ape with a human soul"). Okay, this silly picture sure ain't no celluloid masterpiece, but as far as Sasquatch cinema movies go it's well above average.

This is, essentially, the same movie as "Legend Of Blood Mountain". A new producer bought the rights to this movie, added some new footage of the monster and some gore to please 1970s audiences, and re-released it 10 years after the fact. It's a real shame that, because of this movie's history, it is almost impossible to find it in it's original form. "Demon Hunter" is a badly spliced mess, and this has added footage and a new monster. Okay, "Legend Of Blood Mountain" is never going to rank on anyone's list of best movie, but still, it would be nice if the original were available more widely.