Diagonaldi Very well executed

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

ofumalow This little-known curio is better than I expected. I hadn't heard of the source books (Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" pulp fictions) before, because they were presumably mostly a Southern regional phenomenon, but now I'm very curious to check them out. The episodic progress, drawn from a couple of Wellman's stories, chronicles the folksy fantastical adventures of a wandering Appalachian troubadour, which include tangling with the Devil and a Ray Harryhausen-like winged monster. The last and least adventure has John managing to somehow free the oppressed black slaves, a "White Savior" scenario that doesn't play too well now. (It probably didn't in 1972, either).Offbeat and filled with pleasant music, "Hillbilly John" probably had a hard time finding an audience at the time, as it was so out of step with popular taste of the era, and it's certainly been largely forgotten since. But given a cast of mostly imported Hollywood veterans (Severn Darden, Denver Pyle, Harris Yulin etc.) and a director who'd mostly toiled in network TV, it's surprisingly flavorful and "authentic" feeling within its folkloric context. (Though he worked on a lot of major series, John Newland's best-known works were probably the TV-movie thrillers "Crawlspace" and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.") Hedges Capers, a handsome young man with a fine voice who never quite hit the bigtime as a recording artist, is appealingly natural in the title role. Sharon Henesy is a weak point as the ingenue, seeming a classic 70s example of casting "somebody's girlfriend" (rather than a talented actor)...but then all she's allowed to do is gaze adoringly at John and hope he'll quit his wanderin' ways, so it's not really her fault she seems superfluous. Despite its low budget, "Hillbilly John" is fairly well-crafted, although its neglect over the years was reflected in the fact that the YouTube dupe I saw seemed to be from an old VHS tape, and was accordingly low-quality. The nighttime sequences (of which there are many) were very murky. Alas, obscure old indie features like this are highly unlikely to get "restored" to pristine quality, so you take what you can get. Anyway, this is hardly a forgotten classic, but it's an ambitious oddity that is quite enjoyable and merits rediscovery.

jabritton-23321 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.

merklekranz Ambitious way beyond it's budget, "The Legend of Hillbilly John" does not live up to it's cult movie reputation. A wandering folk singer, Severn Darden, uses his silver string guitar to defeat the Devil in various forms. The Appalachian setting is interesting, and I would not be surprised if inhabitants of the hollows truly believed the Devil caused their calamities. Superstition or not, the first half of the film holds interest as John sets out with his faithful dog to bring and end to a winged annoyance known as the "Dirty Bird". The claymation creature is eventually slain, not by singing it to death, but by a bash with the guitar. Beyond this the movie drags on to an underwhelming political statement conclusion. - MERK

rtrexler-1 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.