I understand this was Robert Mitchum's baby from the beginning. He wrote the music, sang the songs, chose the cast and crew, did Princess Aurora's pas de seul in the Sleeping Beauty sequence, and managed to shoot down four Zero fighters in one pass.
I grew up in a subculture where cars and courage were much admired and this film has plenty of both. But I didn't enjoy it that much the first time around and, more recently, have found that my appreciation of it hasn't increased much.
As the defiant, whiskey-running hero with the hopped up 1950 Ford, Mitchum is fine. He strides through the movie in that bulky, slightly swaybacked way of his. But he really doesn't get much of a chance to show his chops, as he did in, say, "Night of the Hunter" or "Farewell, My Lovely," or "Cape Fear." He's more of a monument than a human figure.
Nobody else rises above "below average" -- certainly not Mitchum's son, James, who seems to be suffering a serious case of exopthalmia. Keely Smith has a smooth voice that's weak but polished. I like her. There's something anthropological about her features, but she can't act. Most of the supporting cast are embarrassing. I winced, watching the old timers sitting around, whittling wood, and trying to decide whether to defy the corrupt criminal organization that's trying to invade their generations-long enterprise in the North Carolina hills.
Worst of all, the director has almost completely failed to capture the ethos, the atmosphere, of the Appalachian hill country. In the 1950s, Asheville had an accent that nobody could make up. Tomatoes were "maters", and bread became "braid." It's absent here. You get a much better feeling for the South in films like "Cool Hand Luke" (shot in California) and "In the Heat of the Night" (shot in Illinois).
I wish it had been better. The script should have included some exposition on whiskey making and whiskey running but much of that is just plain skipped over. Someone flips open the hood of that Ford and men gaze lovingly down at the engine (the "mill", which has a "racing cam"). The engine appears to have three carburetors, but we don't know what we're looking at, or why it's so special, or why extremely high speed is necessary on twisting mountain roads. I expect even racing car enthusiasts may be disappointed. At any rate, there is a spectacular crash at the end.
I grew up in a subculture where cars and courage were much admired and this film has plenty of both. But I didn't enjoy it that much the first time around and, more recently, have found that my appreciation of it hasn't increased much.
As the defiant, whiskey-running hero with the hopped up 1950 Ford, Mitchum is fine. He strides through the movie in that bulky, slightly swaybacked way of his. But he really doesn't get much of a chance to show his chops, as he did in, say, "Night of the Hunter" or "Farewell, My Lovely," or "Cape Fear." He's more of a monument than a human figure.
Nobody else rises above "below average" -- certainly not Mitchum's son, James, who seems to be suffering a serious case of exopthalmia. Keely Smith has a smooth voice that's weak but polished. I like her. There's something anthropological about her features, but she can't act. Most of the supporting cast are embarrassing. I winced, watching the old timers sitting around, whittling wood, and trying to decide whether to defy the corrupt criminal organization that's trying to invade their generations-long enterprise in the North Carolina hills.
Worst of all, the director has almost completely failed to capture the ethos, the atmosphere, of the Appalachian hill country. In the 1950s, Asheville had an accent that nobody could make up. Tomatoes were "maters", and bread became "braid." It's absent here. You get a much better feeling for the South in films like "Cool Hand Luke" (shot in California) and "In the Heat of the Night" (shot in Illinois).
I wish it had been better. The script should have included some exposition on whiskey making and whiskey running but much of that is just plain skipped over. Someone flips open the hood of that Ford and men gaze lovingly down at the engine (the "mill", which has a "racing cam"). The engine appears to have three carburetors, but we don't know what we're looking at, or why it's so special, or why extremely high speed is necessary on twisting mountain roads. I expect even racing car enthusiasts may be disappointed. At any rate, there is a spectacular crash at the end.