The Legend of Hillbilly John

It wasn't till quite some time after seeing this movie that I read any of Wellman's stories, but this movie is pretty faithful to them, at least the ones I know (though I don't know if any of the Silver John stories have "Mr. Marduk" or not). I don't know if I know Hedges Capers or the leading actress from anything else, but they were fine in it, and along with them, it's full of great character actors (though I don't think that's the right term for Susan Strasberg) - Denver Pyle, R. G. Armstrong, Severn Darden, Harris Yulin (who, apart from Darden, might have had the best part, and who really seemed to enjoy playing it). Even the political stuff, like the very end (which I won't give away) doesn't seem too forced. That ending could apply to ANY time (certainly including right now), and it would be a shame for people to think of it ENTIRELY as some NIXON JOKE (though I suppose it probably IS thought of as only that). In spite of the listing, I'm certain this movie is from 1972-73.

A dark magical fantasy based on several of Manly Wade Wellman's stories about a guitar player who wanders across the rural American Southeast, confronting evil magicians, monsters, and perhaps the Devil himself.

The special effects are of only medium quality, even for 1973, and I can only suggest looking past them to the down-home, country-flavored fairy tale being told, woven together from fireside stories and folk traditions Wellman heard and adapted.

It's always hard to put on film what a poetic writer has described - the charm and mystery of Wellman's beloved Carolinan countryside, the old-fashioned courtesies and customs of the mountain people - and this movie does not quite succeed, perhaps because it did not really try. The magical creatures are put in the foreground, and the setting (Wellman's true love) is made a generic Southern backdrop. John in the book is a devout Christian (more, he might could be a friend of Christ); John in the movie is darkly hinted to be a son of the Devil.

My own enjoyment of this movie was very mixed: I felt frustrated by how often and how far the movie fell short of the books, and tantalized more by what the movie *could* have been than by what it *was*, but I'm glad I didn't miss seeing it.

If you also enjoyed the movie and want to see more of the character, read Wellman's "Silver John" books: "Who Fears the Devil?" (or "John the Balladeer"), "The Old Gods Waken", "After Dark", "The Lost and the Lurking", "The Hanging Stones", and "The Voice of the Mountain". There are also Wellman fan sites on the Web.

Sorry Merk, but Severn Darden played Mr. Marduke. The wandering folksinger (John, no last name ever given in the movies or the stories.) was played by Hedges Capers. And it wasn't "Dirty Bird" but Ugly Bird (from the short story "Oh, Ugly Bird!' by Manley Wade Wellman. Admittedly, the film isn't the greatest, but the stories and books about Silver John are classics by an author with a genuine love for the mountains and their people and of the folk music of the area.

I have seen this movie and consider it a gem. I am a fan of Manly Wade Wellman's fiction and found the portrayal of Silver John to be "dead on". Definitely a movie that deserves a release on DVD. While the budget was low, the emphasis on a real and genuine portrayal of Silver John was there. I found this movie to be well acted and genuine...definitely something that people today need to see, given the sorry state of cinema. I saw this film in the early 1980's. It had been released on video tape and a friend, a collector of rare movies, told me I needed to watch it. I had never heard of Manly Wade Wellman, but I instantly became a fan after seeing this movie. That should be incentive enough for anyone to at least want to watch this movie.

Based on a series of stories by American author Manly Wade Wellman, this folk horror/fantasy stars Hedges Capers as John, a ballad singer who wanders the Appalachians battling evil with a magical silver-stringed guitar as his weapon. As John roams the land, he encounters a gold-hungry man who makes a deal with a witch, battles an 'ugly bird' (a shonky stop-motion creature), and defeats a nasty cotton plantation owner who is cheating the black folk toiling in his fields.

I suspect that all of the positive reviews here on IMDb have been written by Appalachians who have a sense of romantic nostalgia about where they live and who are willing to turn a blind eye to the fact that the plot is a scattershot load of old twaddle, with a main character who randomly wanders from scene to scene with no real sense of purpose. Add to the fact that Capers is a terrible actor (this is his one and only movie) and what you have is an often incomprehensible piece of low budget garbage unlikely to appeal to anyone who wears shoes and doesn't have an outhouse.

Amazingly, the cast features some fairly impressive names: Susan Strasberg (The Manitou, Rollercoaster), Denver Pyle (Bonnie and Clyde, The Dukes of Hazzard), Harris Yulin (Scarface, Ghostbusters II) and R. G. Armstrong (Predator, Dick Tracy), with Hoyt Axton (Billy Peltzer's dad in Gremlins) singing one of the songs.

2/10. As bad as the animated ugly bird is, I quite enjoyed it, so the film narrowly escapes getting the lowest possible rating.