Road to Nashville

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Audience Member I'm not exactly a fan of country music, but I will concede that I actually liked this bizarre mess of a film. The film is mostly a compilation of songs (A whopping 38 in total) with only a thin string of a plot that just serves as an excuse to allow these performances to occur. While the film is a bit overlong and a bit excessive at times, it's a pleasant film for the most part with a decent selection of songs. If you enjoy country music of yesteryear, this film might give you something to watch, but this definitely isn't for everyone. Though I'm not a fan of country music, I found this to be a pleasant surprise. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member I'll begin by saying "Road to Nashville" is a fine concert film. Though it lacks the energy of genre exemplar "Stop Making Sense," or even the slickly directed live documents accompanying special releases from modern acts, performances from country greats like Marty Robbins (who also acted as associate producer and probably made this curio, for better or worse, possible), Waylon Jennings, Porter Wagoner and Johnny Cash and the Carter Family, as well as more obscure acts like The Stoneman Family (giving an intense instrumental performance early on that marks one of the film's high points) and the comical Osborne Brothers. Comedy represents the film's downfall, however; if only the Osbornes acted as the only foils for the more "serious" scenes. Instead we're stuck with Colonel Feetlebaum (Doodles Weaver), the most incompetent A&R man ever to work in the music industry. The Colonel has been tasked by his beleaguered boss (Richard Arlen) with recruiting country musicians to appear in a concert film. Ignorant of the business, Feetlebaum bumbles his way around a music studio meeting a who's-who of the industry's best. Weaver plays Feetlebaum as sort of a cross between a poor man's Red Skelton and all of the Ritz Brothers thrown together. Suffice to say he's incredibly annoying, his shtick forming not only the entirety of the scenes linking one performance to another but also random, completely unnecessary cutaways during the musical sequences. These latter portions usually consist of Weaver looking like a moron and dancing about to the music and/or disrupting goings-on in the recording booths by treating the equipment like accoutrements in his own personal sitting room. It's a shame "Nashville" used this framing device as it's completely unnecessary. Feetlebaum is an absolute waste, his primary purpose consisting of an overlong dig at "Colonel" Tom Parker along with his Wendell Corey-esque mugging. Furthermore, Weaver's comedic style doesn't even gel with the tone of the rest of the movie; the film's use of country humor among its Nashville stars feels genuine, a traditional mix of folksiness and tongue-in-cheek wit. Because the rest of the film's stars are genuine Nashville icons, and Weaver is an oaf wandering in from out of town, the contrast is even more jarring and unpleasant. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member ONLY for country music fans of the 50s, if you have a sense of humor and nostalgia for an America past.....GET THIS DISC, Y'all!! Definately NOT recommended for film critics and trendies, but for anyone else, a religious? experience. Marty Robbins produced this turkey, so we get to see his face in much of the film. An acting bomb, Doodles Weaver and others are the worst. They are all non-actors of course, so I guess we ought to cut this some slack. But anyway, see it at your absolute peril. Available in inglorious color and it's entire mayhem.... see the whole retro thing at: http://www.hulu.com/watch/203884/road-to-nashville This whole thing is how NOT to make a movie. But the acts are too country retro for words. Thank God for the outlaw acts like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson that saved us from the likes of this. On the other hand, maybe not. BTW, the 60% rating is NOT a judgement of the talent in the film. It is all about the quality of the making of the film. I had to allow some slack for the era this film was made, so it made a fresh by the narrowist of margins. Comments one viewer: "starts off corny. if you like country folks and music, i guess this is your kind of movie. actors suck." Acts/actors(?) include: Richard Arlen ... Studio Boss Norma Jean Beasler ... Herself (as Pretty Miss Norma Jean) Buck ... Himself Anita Carter ... Herself June Carter Cash ... Herself Helen Carter ... Herself Mother Maybelle Carter ... Herself Johnny Cash ... Himself Ralph Emery ... Himself Lefty Frizzell ... Himself Quinine Gumstump ... Himself Roni Stoneman Hemrick ... Herself Waylon Jennings ... Himself Bobby Osborne ... Himself Sonny Osborne ... Himself Bill Phillips ... Himself Webb Pierce ... Himself Margie Singleton ... Herself (singer) Connie Smith ... Herself Hank Snow ... Himself Donna Stoneman ... Herself The Stoneman Family ... Themselves Bobby Sykes ... Himself Porter Wagoner ... Himself Doodles Weaver ... Colonel Feetlebaum Kitty Wells ... Herself (singer) Dottie West ... Herself (singer) Don Winters ... Himself Johnny Wright ... Himself Ruby Wright ... Herself Faron Young ... Himself Speck Rhodes ... Himself (uncredited) Produced by Robert Patrick .... producer Marty Robbins .... associate producer Cinematography by Leif Rise Vilmos Zsigmond (as William Zsigmund) Film Editing by Michael David Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Road to Nashville

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