Welcome to Moonshine Mountain, the coolest thing Herschell Gordon Lewis ever did that didn't involve gore, and even if it did, it wouldn't matter because this light-hearted Carolina exploitation is just fine the way it is. Moonshine Mountain tells the story of a country singer named Doug Martin. Doug is a soft, city boy, so he figures his lyrics, in the future, might mean something if he lives in the hills for a spell. It appears as if all Herschell knows about southerners is what he's seen on The Beverly Hillbillies, because Doug's interactions with some of these people is just classic After settling in "The Hotel", Doug stumbles upon a nice, drunk family, the Carpenters, to hang with and to sing with, and to, hell yeah, drink with. So, Bring on the fire water!! Moonshine Mountain is packed with backwoods such tomfoolery as Barn dances, hangovers, rapes, murders, and you know it!! Hillbilly music. What Moonshine Mountain really has going for it, above all, is good ol' Jefferey Allen, the Mayor from 2,000 Maniacs, that guy is awesome, he really knows how to throw himself into a role, or maybe he just is that guy. Moonshine Mountain also includes Adam Sorg, the killer from Color Me Blood Red, this time he plays the sheriff. Sorg is much better in the other one, although, Moonshine Mountain is much more entertaining, and an all around better movie. Other than 2,000 Maniacs, this might be Herschell's finest work. if for some reason, you end up hating Moonshine Mountain, all I can say is, try out How to make a doll, that might be closer to what your looking for. If you have an appreciation for the south, as well as low-budget cinema, you just might take a liking to this Hixploitation gem. Now, Somebody pass the Grey Goose. 8/10
10 Reviews
loved the movie
johnmovies-315 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this movie in Morehead City, NC when it came out and would love to see it again. It is a thoroughly enjoyable low B movie. The world needs this one on DVD. Compared to many of the A movies coming out the past few years this one shines. There was some really good humor in it. I remember only bits and pieces of it, such as the idiot drooling blonde sitting on the log who had a great voice, the stereotyped moonshiners and a body in the moonshine vat. The big city singer going into the mountains to collect music is the basic plot but it soon extends well past that. I do remember laughing my head off when watching this one. I'm now 40+ years older and wonder how I'd react to it today.
A Nice Moonshine Movie
gavin69427 November 2016
Doug Martin, a "society" western-mountain singing star on television, goes back to the Carolina hills, to get some authenticity to his over-citified blandness. There he meets up with the Carpenters and the Bashams, two families who, together with Sheriff Asa Potter, own a gigantic moonshine still which keeps the local countryside soaked with "white lightning."
Watching this movie is like watching a fictional version of a Les Blank documentary. We get plenty of backwoods music and scenery, and although it is all fake, it seems almost as though it could be real. The music, at the very least, is somewhat authentic.
In Lewis' oeuvre, this is a hard one to categorize. It's not gore or exploitation or anything risqué. It's a pretty straightforward story of a big city musician in the middle of nowhere.
Watching this movie is like watching a fictional version of a Les Blank documentary. We get plenty of backwoods music and scenery, and although it is all fake, it seems almost as though it could be real. The music, at the very least, is somewhat authentic.
In Lewis' oeuvre, this is a hard one to categorize. It's not gore or exploitation or anything risqué. It's a pretty straightforward story of a big city musician in the middle of nowhere.
A Rather Awful Movie
Michael_Elliott9 August 2015
Moonshine Mountain (1964)
1/2 (out of 4)
Country music superstar Doug Martin (Chuck Scott) returns to his backwoods town where he gets back into good favor with the local rednecks but soon a greedy and dirty sheriff tries to push his weight on them.
MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN is a rather horrible film and it's becoming quite clear to me that director Herschell Gordon Lewis made some really awful movies. Yes, everyone including myself loves his gore pictures but man were there some bad ones surrounding them. This film clocks in at just 83 minutes but I honestly think it was the slowest movie I have ever seen. In fact, I thought the movie was nearly over and checked the time on it and realized that I was only twenty minutes in. Yes, it's that slow.
As you'd expect the performances were quite awful as was the story, the direction, the lighting, the camera-work and pretty much everything else. What was so shockingly bad about this film is the fact that the producer and filmmakers thought someone would want to watch this. The "hicksploitation" genre wasn't a very big one but at least the majority of those films offered up either nudity or some sort of fun. MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN is just one long drawn out scene after another. There aren't any laughs, no nudity, no exploitation. There's really nothing here except for a couple dumb but fun songs.
1/2 (out of 4)
Country music superstar Doug Martin (Chuck Scott) returns to his backwoods town where he gets back into good favor with the local rednecks but soon a greedy and dirty sheriff tries to push his weight on them.
MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN is a rather horrible film and it's becoming quite clear to me that director Herschell Gordon Lewis made some really awful movies. Yes, everyone including myself loves his gore pictures but man were there some bad ones surrounding them. This film clocks in at just 83 minutes but I honestly think it was the slowest movie I have ever seen. In fact, I thought the movie was nearly over and checked the time on it and realized that I was only twenty minutes in. Yes, it's that slow.
As you'd expect the performances were quite awful as was the story, the direction, the lighting, the camera-work and pretty much everything else. What was so shockingly bad about this film is the fact that the producer and filmmakers thought someone would want to watch this. The "hicksploitation" genre wasn't a very big one but at least the majority of those films offered up either nudity or some sort of fun. MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN is just one long drawn out scene after another. There aren't any laughs, no nudity, no exploitation. There's really nothing here except for a couple dumb but fun songs.
That Good Ol' Mountain Madness
Flixer195719 January 2002
Warning: Spoilers
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**
Country singer Chuck Scott goes down to the Carolinas to research the origins of folk music. He meets such local luminaries as the Carpenter family, the Basham family, and Adam (COLOR ME BLOOD RED) Sorg as a psychotic, rape-happy sheriff. Within 15 minutes, Scott and the Carpenter family treat us to a rousing rendition of that chart-busting coast-to-coast hit "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." Wretched as the song is, the Carpenters sing it fairly well despite the absence of music schools in the area, not to mention their notable shortage of teeth. The lyrics to the other songs except "I Love That White Lightning" are unintelligible, which may be just as well. Scott goes on to partake of the local vittles, romance one of the local wimmen and of course run up against the local corn likker trade. The hill folk own, and fight over, "The World's Biggest Still" which looks like the world's biggest carnival dunk tank. Sheriff Sorg murders revenooers and dumps their corpses into the still. When director Lewis saw how many kids were attending his premiere of MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN he went into the projection booth and cut out some other gruesome bits that have never been reinstated. I'll never forgive him for that. Comedy fans can enjoy the appearance and antics of Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore and Mark Douglas (leftovers from 2000 MANIACS) and Pat Patterson, future director of DR. GORE. One video dealer states that in his version, "the print is jumpy, the color is washed out and the sound is bad." The scary thing is, MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN probably looked that way when it first hit the drive-ins.
Country singer Chuck Scott goes down to the Carolinas to research the origins of folk music. He meets such local luminaries as the Carpenter family, the Basham family, and Adam (COLOR ME BLOOD RED) Sorg as a psychotic, rape-happy sheriff. Within 15 minutes, Scott and the Carpenter family treat us to a rousing rendition of that chart-busting coast-to-coast hit "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." Wretched as the song is, the Carpenters sing it fairly well despite the absence of music schools in the area, not to mention their notable shortage of teeth. The lyrics to the other songs except "I Love That White Lightning" are unintelligible, which may be just as well. Scott goes on to partake of the local vittles, romance one of the local wimmen and of course run up against the local corn likker trade. The hill folk own, and fight over, "The World's Biggest Still" which looks like the world's biggest carnival dunk tank. Sheriff Sorg murders revenooers and dumps their corpses into the still. When director Lewis saw how many kids were attending his premiere of MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN he went into the projection booth and cut out some other gruesome bits that have never been reinstated. I'll never forgive him for that. Comedy fans can enjoy the appearance and antics of Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore and Mark Douglas (leftovers from 2000 MANIACS) and Pat Patterson, future director of DR. GORE. One video dealer states that in his version, "the print is jumpy, the color is washed out and the sound is bad." The scary thing is, MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN probably looked that way when it first hit the drive-ins.
Lewis lite.
BA_Harrison19 September 2023
In Herschell Gordon Lewis's hicksploitation movie Moonshine Mountain, Charles Glore plays popular folk singer Doug Martin, who travels from New York to the backwoods village of Stuartsville looking for authentic musical inspiration. There, he meets the Carpenters, a family of hillbilly moonshiners who take Doug under their wing after he impresses them with his gittar picking. Meanwhile, Sheriff Potter (Adam Sorg) and his hulking deputy Luther (Harry Hoffman) are up to no good, killing off federal agents who have been poking their noses into Stuartsville's illegal alcohol activity.
There are two main reasons for watching an H. G. Lewis movie: T&A in his nudie cuties or excessive gore in his splatter films. People don't watch his work for great performances, slick direction or brilliant writing. Moonshine Mountain has zero boobs and not much blood, but plenty of amateurish acting, weak dialogue and ham-fisted film-making, making it a real test of one's patience. It is like Two Thousand Maniacs with all of the good stuff taken out and replaced by dreadful music and songs. If that sounds like your jar of moonshine, then quaff away, but I prefer my HGL films with guts (and brains and severed limbs).
2.5/10, generously rounded up to 3 for the amusing credits.
There are two main reasons for watching an H. G. Lewis movie: T&A in his nudie cuties or excessive gore in his splatter films. People don't watch his work for great performances, slick direction or brilliant writing. Moonshine Mountain has zero boobs and not much blood, but plenty of amateurish acting, weak dialogue and ham-fisted film-making, making it a real test of one's patience. It is like Two Thousand Maniacs with all of the good stuff taken out and replaced by dreadful music and songs. If that sounds like your jar of moonshine, then quaff away, but I prefer my HGL films with guts (and brains and severed limbs).
2.5/10, generously rounded up to 3 for the amusing credits.
Hickspolitation Gordon Lewis
BandSAboutMovies2 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
After the success of his gore epics, Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs!, Herschell Gordon Lewis made this, the first of several country fried films. But just because this is supposed to be a sexy comedy romp doesn't mean that Lewis won't hit us with plenty of strangeness and lots of the red stuff.
Charles Glore, working here as Chuck Scott, is a country western star who heads back to the hills of the Carolines where within days, he's in the middle of a feud between the government and the moonshiners. Glore also was the musical director for Two Thousand Maniacs! and wrote this movie.
The title card says "directed by Herchell Gordon Lewis, who ought to know better, but don't." Lewis just can't help himself, as in the midst of the country fun, a psycho named Asa Potter is refused sex from the singer's girlfriend and then kills her. Keep in mind that he's also the town's sheriff and also assaults multiple women in the film, including one mentally challenged girl that eventually fells him with an axe, which is how it works in the universe of Lewis.
This leads to the sheriff shooting people off a watertower, Charles Starweather-style. Keep in mind this movie was made only six years after that shocking event.
Lewis also wrote and sings the main theme, "White Lightning." As much as he would live up to the quote "I see filmmaking as a business and pity anyone who regards it as an art form," you can tell when the man is having a good time. Moonshine Mountain isn't a good film, but it sure is interesting in parts and it's pretty short. More films should aspire to both points.
There was also a novelization of the film, which blows my mind. It's a collector's item today. I miss the time when every movie had a book that would go with it. Somehow, having this movie written into a novel legitimizes it.
Charles Glore, working here as Chuck Scott, is a country western star who heads back to the hills of the Carolines where within days, he's in the middle of a feud between the government and the moonshiners. Glore also was the musical director for Two Thousand Maniacs! and wrote this movie.
The title card says "directed by Herchell Gordon Lewis, who ought to know better, but don't." Lewis just can't help himself, as in the midst of the country fun, a psycho named Asa Potter is refused sex from the singer's girlfriend and then kills her. Keep in mind that he's also the town's sheriff and also assaults multiple women in the film, including one mentally challenged girl that eventually fells him with an axe, which is how it works in the universe of Lewis.
This leads to the sheriff shooting people off a watertower, Charles Starweather-style. Keep in mind this movie was made only six years after that shocking event.
Lewis also wrote and sings the main theme, "White Lightning." As much as he would live up to the quote "I see filmmaking as a business and pity anyone who regards it as an art form," you can tell when the man is having a good time. Moonshine Mountain isn't a good film, but it sure is interesting in parts and it's pretty short. More films should aspire to both points.
There was also a novelization of the film, which blows my mind. It's a collector's item today. I miss the time when every movie had a book that would go with it. Somehow, having this movie written into a novel legitimizes it.
Best watched whilst drunk!
Stevieboy66615 April 2023
Country and Western singer Doug Martin (Chuck Scott) grabs his "gittar" and flies down to South Carolina from New York on a journey of musical inspiration but ends up getting caught up with thieving hicks, illegal moonshine production and a sheriff who is only too happy to exploit his position, even to the point of murdering innocent people. I had never heard of this movie before, it was an extra on my blu-ray of "Two Thousand Maniacs", both directed by the Godfather of Gore, Herschel Gordon Lewis. Moonshine is not a horror film, though a couple of mutilated corpses are seen, it is what is often termed a "hicksploitation" movie. The very low budget is obvious, the acting is terrible, etc. Sadly the original negative is lost so the version that I have is pieced together from various prints, the quality at times being very poor. Doug is as dull as dishwater but some of the hicks are entertaining. There are several musical numbers throughout, I enjoyed these but the 84 minutes running time proved hard going, it felt longer. I could only recommend this to die hard fans of either HG Lewis or hixploitation completests. . The credits read "produced & directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis who ought to know better but don't", you have been warned!
I done found me a good 'un.
Hey_Sweden9 March 2019
Charles Glore stars as Doug Martin, a folk singer / jerk who goes on vacation in backwoods country. He says he's looking for inspiration for his next songs. Anyway, he ends up in a nowhere burg named Stewartsville where, after some exercises in humiliation, he actually comes to like the locale and the folk, including the purty daughter (Bonnie Hinson) of amiable rube Jeb Carpenter (Jeffrey Allen, no stranger to this type of role). He must soon do battle with a crooked sheriff named Asa Potter (Gordon Oas-Heim).
This is pretty typical stuff for independent operator Herschell Gordon Lewis, one of his ventures into "hicksploitation" that doesn't depend on gore / shock value for impact. The characters may be classic stereotypes, and a great many of the performances may not be terribly slick, but this cast still gives this thing their best effort. The picture does benefit from genuine location shooting - this shore ain't shot on no newfangled Hollywood studio backlot. Good atmosphere and a couple of catchy ditties help to keep "Moonshine Mountain" in the HGL tradition.
The bad news is that there really isn't enough story here to justify 85 minutes, so we must wait through a fair amount of padding. Without graphic violence to fall back on, HGL can't keep these proceedings quite as lively as the macabre mayhem in "Two Thousand Maniacs!".
Still, it's not without its pleasures. Oas-Heim was one of the better actors to be found in the HGL oeuvre, to be sure, and he's supremely slimy 'n' creepy as the villain. As an interesting bit of trivia, he's billed under the name "Adam Sorg", which was the name of the character he'd play in the subsequent HGL gore epic, "Color Me Blood Red".
Yeah, this is not the sort of thing one seeks out if they want "quality" cinema, and even as HGL movies go, he'd done more entertaining movies before and after this one. But completists will definitely want to have some likker on hand as they sit down and soak up this Southern-fried trash.
Six out of 10.
This is pretty typical stuff for independent operator Herschell Gordon Lewis, one of his ventures into "hicksploitation" that doesn't depend on gore / shock value for impact. The characters may be classic stereotypes, and a great many of the performances may not be terribly slick, but this cast still gives this thing their best effort. The picture does benefit from genuine location shooting - this shore ain't shot on no newfangled Hollywood studio backlot. Good atmosphere and a couple of catchy ditties help to keep "Moonshine Mountain" in the HGL tradition.
The bad news is that there really isn't enough story here to justify 85 minutes, so we must wait through a fair amount of padding. Without graphic violence to fall back on, HGL can't keep these proceedings quite as lively as the macabre mayhem in "Two Thousand Maniacs!".
Still, it's not without its pleasures. Oas-Heim was one of the better actors to be found in the HGL oeuvre, to be sure, and he's supremely slimy 'n' creepy as the villain. As an interesting bit of trivia, he's billed under the name "Adam Sorg", which was the name of the character he'd play in the subsequent HGL gore epic, "Color Me Blood Red".
Yeah, this is not the sort of thing one seeks out if they want "quality" cinema, and even as HGL movies go, he'd done more entertaining movies before and after this one. But completists will definitely want to have some likker on hand as they sit down and soak up this Southern-fried trash.
Six out of 10.
An unforgettable experience!
kpky25 December 1999
My brother and I first saw Moonshine Mountain 35 years ago. My mother had dropped us kids off to see a "good" movie. After looking at the pictures in the entrance, we decided to go to the B theater and see Moonshine Mountain. What a treat! The characters were great..the scenery great..the music outstanding. We still talk about the girl who sang "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." So what if it was technically lacking? For us poor country kids, who tired of movies of city antics in places we would never know, this movie said it all.I would gladly give my eye teeth to get a copy of that movie today. It developed an addiction for alternative movies from which I hope never to recover.
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