Tue 18 Sep 2018
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE (1967).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[6] Comments
HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. Woolner Brothers Pictures, 1967. Ferlin Husky, Joi Lansing, Don Bowman, Merle Haggard, Linda Ho, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr. and George Barrows as the Gorilla. Written by Duke Yelton. Directed by Jean Yarbrough.
I followed up SLEEP. MY LOVE [reviewed here] by watching HILLBILLYS (sic) IN A HAUNTED HOUSE something in the manner of a man putting a gun to his head, hoping the culture shock wouldn’t kill me. Indeed, if I may compare-and-contrast, where SLEEP tends to be elegant and thoughtful, HILLBILLYS (sic) is nasty, brutish and short: eighty-eight minutes of forgettable songs, indifferent acting and a script for which the author must surely burn in Hell.
I liked it quite a lot, actually. Sometimes it’s fun to turn off the Brains, and watching this is as close as one can come without the use of firearms or illegal substances. It was kind of fun, in a depressing way, to see Basil Rathbone, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. all spooking like troupers, playing bad guys in a monster movie one more time, buckling on their sneers, leers and menacing looks for one last waltz with a guy in a gorilla suit — something like the aging lawmen in RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY trying to summon up a strength they no longer have, getting by on the vestiges of their legends. Or maybe just three actors in search of a paycheck.
This was doggedly directed by Jean Yarborough, his last film and a fitting coda for an artist who, in his day, worked with all the big names in bad movies: Abbott & Costello, the Bowery Boys, Rondo Hatton, Bela Lugosi… he even did an unacknowledged mini-adventure series with Mantan Moreland fighting Nazis in the tropics. Check out LAW OF THE JUNGLE or KING OF THE ZOMBIES. Both were directed — along with THE BRUTE MAN, THE DEVIL BAT and others too feeble to mention — by Jean Yarborough.
Even in his hey-day, Yarborough’s style was nothing very remarkable, and HILLBILLYS (sic) is no better than the indifferent rest of his work, except in the ironic fact of its existence. It’s as if the gods of the B-movies had settled on this as this as the curtain line of a forgotten play, the destiny to which a plodding director must wander, Bogart-like, to his own personal Casablanca. Poetic justice, perhaps. Or maybe just doggerel.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:52 am
Clarification time:
Hillbillys … was Jean Yarbrough’s last theatrical movie.
He was mainly directing series TV during this period, and continued to do so into the ’70s.
Yarbrough’s last recorded credit was an episode of Adam-12 in 1971, which as it happened was the final screen appearance of Michael O’Shea (but that’s another story …).
Check IMDb for more details.
September 19th, 2018 at 8:04 am
Ah yes, but Dan didn’t mention that HILLBILLYS (sic) is a sequel, to THE LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS (sic), from 1966, with Ferlin Husky playing the same role of Woody, and Joi Lansing’s role of Boots Malone being essayed by the inimitable Mamie Van Doren. Despite the presence of Mamie, however, not to mention Jayne Mansfield, HAUNTED HOUSE was a lot more fun.
September 19th, 2018 at 9:18 am
I loved this when I saw it at the Eagle Drive-In Theater but haven’t seen it since. I’m going to have to check out those Mantan Moreland movies. They sound great.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:15 pm
There is nothing of Ride The High Country in this abysmal flop filled with virtual unemployables in search of a last pay day or two.
September 19th, 2018 at 8:09 pm
Kind of of hard to disagree with you there, Barry. So I won’t.
I’m sure the movie has its high points but I watched the trailer and that was all I needed. I’m sure I would have enjoyed the hell out of it when I was fifteen and … you needn’t be told my whole life story.
September 20th, 2018 at 3:26 am
Just got around to looking at that trailer …
Anybody else recognize the voice of Dick Tufeld (aka the Robot’s voice on Lost In Space, among much else) narrating this pitch?
“Danger, Hillbillys (sic)! DANGER!!!”