Nashville Girl (1976)

Expected more

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

New World's "Nashville Girl" begins with a hayseed young miss skinny-dipping in the lake and never strays from this path. In the lead, honey-mellowed Monica Gayle is an easy screen presence as a determined, talented country music songwriter with aspirations to work in Nashville, but the movie isn't interested in being a rags-to-riches story. Jailbait Gayle is continually ogled, pawed at, stripped and molested, while most of the men on her journey (and one lesbian, natch) are horny old-timers with one thing on their minds. Director Gus Trikonis and writer Peer J. Oppenheimer aren't smut peddlers, exactly--there's an outline of a story--and Oppenheimer provides salty hard luck travails for our heroine. Still, it's a jaded B-movie with one foot in the gutter: not entirely sleazy, but not at all inspiring. *1/2 from ****

This movie teams up two underrated talents from the 1970's. The first is director Gus Trikonis (the former Mr. Goldie Hawn) who directed big-screen exploitation flicks like "Swinging Barmaids" and "The Student Body", underrated horror fare like "The Evil", and superior made-for-TV movies like "The Darker Side of Terror". The second is actress Monica Gayle, a breath-taking natural beauty who spent a good portion of all her movies modeling her luscious birthday suit, and as a result perhaps was never really given her due as an actress. With the possible exception of "Strawberries Need Rain", this is her best film.Gayle plays "Jamie", a sixteen-year-old runaway, who comes to Nashville to try to make it as a songwriter. Her character is not unlike the actress herself in that while she is actually genuinely talented, none of the loutish male agents and producers she interviews with seem to notice because they are all too busy trying to dip their wicks in her. One washed-up country music celebrity finally does take advantage of her MUSICAL talents, but he too eventually becomes possessed by her irresistible, nubile charms and for awhile this kind of turns into a low-budget, country-music version of "A Star is Born".This is not exactly a feminist film. "Jamie" is forcibly raped twice, taken advantage of my every man she meets, and at one point even ends up in a juvenile detention center after she's caught in a massage parlor bust (while a client is giving HER a massage). And, of course, in the camp she falls prey to the stereotypical lesbian guard. Despite all the exploitative elements though, Trikonis crafts a fairly realistic movie that does really show the seedy side of Nashville. It's not "Coal Miner's Daughter", but it's not exactly trying to be either. It's also not Robert Altman's "Nashville", but I found it a lot more fun to watch. And I actually thought it was quite a bit BETTER than the 70's version of "A Star Is Born" (with the insufferable Barbra Streisand). The country music songs are quite good (although unlike Sissy Spacek, Karen Black, and a lot of the actresses in the aforementioned movies, Gayle's singing was quite obviously dubbed). I hadn't heard a lot of the songs before, but there is a good cover of the Bob Will's classic "Faded love". I'd definitely recommend this one.

So I hear Nashville Girl is a flick that all exploitation fans should enjoy. Well, after watching NG, I'd agree and disagree.First the story, which revolves around young and innocent lovely deciding to run away from home and shoot for her dreams of becoming a country singer. It's a story-idea we've all watched before, from movie's about athletes reaching their goals to an actor hitting it big on the big screen. But with Nashville Girl this movie shows the oh-so real and seedy parts of the bizz. Which were all the reasons why this film is considered an exploit film. Sure it has some sleazy scenes, but nothing is graphic to the point of a double-take. That is where I disagree, the film barely felt like an exploitation classic. It felt like just a solid, well-made film. Obviously there are levels of exploitation when it comes down to an exploit flick, and I guess this is just one that measures a little low on the Sick Scale.Nashville Girl overall though is a really good flick. With average to great acting by almost all involved the movie's emotional issues feel much more realistic. And with it's realistic approach, solid writing, and great soundtrack, the movie delivers far more than it fails to. If you're into exploit films and you're watching this for some heavy sleaze or violence, you may be slightly let-down. But don't dismay, Nashville Girl is a really good movie and one of the best "hicksploitation" flicks out there.

You know you're in for a four-star 70's drive-in sleazy treat when barely two minutes into the picture the luscious and adorable Monica Gayle, a lovely sprite actress who appeared in trashy films for such B-movie luminaries as Jack Hill, Harry Novak, Gary Graver and Larry Buchanan, peels her clothes off to go skinny-dipping while the opening credits are still rolling. Of course, some vile, scummy degenerate hillbilly dude comes along and savagely rapes poor Monica, thus giving her a credible excuse to run away from home with acoustic guitar in tow and go to Nashville to make it as an honest-to-goodness country music star. The ever perky and appealing Gayle, as naive, but feisty and determined Loretta Lynn-like 16-year-old Kentucky hick chick Jamie Barker, receives a ride into town from gruff trucker Leo Gordon and promptly learns that the only way to really make it in Nashville is by making love with the right powerful music biz people. Pretty soon Jamie is gladly hopping in the sack with every lecherous older man who's got the hots for her. Alas, Jamie runs low on cash and is forced to work at a seedy massage parlor as a receptionist. And, wouldn't you know it, Jamie gets arrested and has to do hard time at a prison work farm where one of the predatory lesbian guards sexually assaults her in the shower! Fortunately, Jamie gets paroled and befriends nice guy session musician Kelly (amiably played by "Flash and the Firecat" 's Roger Davis), who introduces her to country music superstar Jeb Hubbard (burly Glen Corbett), an overbearing jerk of a control freak with a fatal weakness for young girls. Hubbard makes Jamie his protégé, renames her Melody Mason, and turns her into the major league star she always dreamed of being. But this overnight fame and fortune comes at a terrible price, with Jamie becoming increasingly lonely, cynical, arrogant and disillusioned as her innocence gets irrevocably shattered.Boy, talk about a wildly colorful and eventful never-a-dull-minute busy narrative! Better still, along with the abundant Gayle nudity, Gus Trikonis' brisk, get-right-to-the-point efficient direction, several astounding scenes featuring Gayle singing both in the recording studio and on stage with a (dubbed?) strong, brassy contralto voice, a standard rags-to-riches story that becomes more delightfully lurid and melodramatic as the movie progresses forward (in fact, this entire picture plays like a tightly streamlined $1.98 discount version of "Coal Miner's Daughter"), a cameo appearance by mid-level country-and-western singer Johnny Rodriguez as himself, and a funny performance by late, great character actor Jesse White as a greedy dirtbag music publisher, this fabulous grindhouse gem even comes complete with a sincere cautionary morale: Country music superstardom ain't exactly what it's cracked up to be. Now, that's precisely what prime 70's exploitation cinema is all about: sex, bare skin, scuzzy plot twists and, most importantly, a redeeming pertinent social message, too!