Whiskey Mountain (1977)

Great Film overall

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Four motorcyclists -- rugged Bill (solid Christopher George), easygoing Dan (likable Preston Pierce), sassy Diana (the always radiant Roberta Collins), and feisty Jamie (a lively portrayal by Linda A. Borgeson) -- run afoul of a gang of evil redneck pot farmers while searching for hidden treasure in the deep woods. Director William Grefe, working from a blah script by Nicholas E. Spanos, crucially fails to build much in the way of tension and allows the narrative to plod along at a too leisurely pace for the first hour. Moreover, the mild PG rating ensures that this movie never completely acquires the hard, gritty edge it truly needs to work and nothing much happens until fifty minutes into the story. Fortunately, things perk up considerably in the final half hour with a dynamic burst of thrilling and well-staged action that's topped off by a genuinely startling surprise bummer ending. The veteran cast of familiar B-pic faces do their best with the mediocre material: George, Pierce, Collins, and Borgeson make for appealing leads, perennial bad guy thespian John Davis Chandler does well as slimy and nasty head hillbilly Rudy, Robert Leslie almost steals the whole show with his hilariously kooky and energetic turn as a crazy old hermit, and William Kerwin is suitably hateful as the seedy Homer. Julio C. Chavez's sunny cinematography makes nice occasional use of strenuous slow motion and boasts lots of breathtaking shots of the gorgeously verdant sylvan scenery. Charlie Daniels' twangy and harmonic score does the rousing trick (Daniels also wrote and sings the catchy theme song). A strictly passable time-waster.

"Music and lyrics written and performed by Charlie Daniels"... 'nuff said. Just don't be expecting anything along the lines of "Devil Went Down To Georgia", ol' Charles sorta talk-sings through one song early in about the Whiskey Mountain (duh) and that's it for lyrics. Hey though, fans of arty rape scenes will get a kick out of the Polaroid montage (my second-hand copy is classified as a FAMILY film) and who doesn't love interminable scenes of rednecks gawking at purty wimmen? The box art made the movie look a hell of a lot weirder than it was, with the promise that "you can lose your life-- or your mind!", but mostly it's two couples trekking through the sticks and "acting" natural. Love that hermit.

This movie was not released.... it ESCAPED!!!!!! I actually got brain damage watching this. It is hard to believe people got paid for acting (oops, too strong a word)"being" in this! At least I presume they got paid. How could it have made any money???

Like "Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace". No, I'm not kidding. I mean, at least this film has people in it that sort of act like recognizable human beings. And any film with WIP-pic stalwart Roberta Collins in it can't be all bad. Maybe mostly, but not all. This is just your sort of run-of-the-mill "Deliverance" rip-off, '70s drive-in fodder from the interesting if not especially talented William Grefe. The fact that it was clearly shot in 'scope and that it was a budget video label (Best Film & Video) that put it out goes a long way toward explaining why it looks so cruddy. So give it a break!