The title of this movie makes little sense, since most of the actors are white. The relationship between Brenda Sykes and John Nielsen has no "build-up." They meet each other, about a minute or so into the movie and just start hanging out together. There is practically no depiction of how their respective families react to their interracial romance. Wouldn't that have to be an obvious factor in a story of interracial love? Brenda Sykes' character comes from an affluent family. Why would she need, or even want, to deal drugs? John Nielsen's character has no character. He's just exceedingly stupid. There is no detectable chemistry between these two characters (and this has nothing to do with the racial difference). The movie picks up a little steam towards the end, but then fizzles out. The movie ends with no resolution to anything. You get the feeling that something more was supposed to happen, but they just gave up on it. William Marshall (as Sykes' father) is totally wasted here. Marion Ross (as Nielsen's mother) is completely out of her element here. Ultimately, a pretty dumb movie.
5 Reviews
Needed an Esther Williams type scene in the movie!
marcusbrainard8 October 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Back in November, 1970; I went to an indoor aquatic center & out of the parking lot was a 1959 Edsel Corsair, Hardtop Coupe that was mostly red with a white roof and a spear-type side trim. I entered the indoor aquatic center and went inside an observation room where you could see an underwater view of the diving pool & what I saw for the first time was a salt/pepper couple. The girl was black and the guy was white and looked like John Neilson & Brenda Sykes' stunt doubles & had their swimwear on & diving gear doing a PG version of "Work with me, Annie ala Esther Williams" & this was my second time seen this live performance & "Wayne" had on a black swimwear & "Sheila" had a bright yellow bikini & had the diving gear on & I sat in the observation room as I did as a 5 year old in 1960 watching my sitter & her letterman beau perform it in front of me. In 1960, I was invited to attend their performance & in 1970, I was Del Shannon's "Stranger In Town" for the second performance with the stunt doubles of Sheila & Wayne. And never seen a white guy with a black girl live until 1970 & I was 15 at the time & did a good performance & like The Vietcong, I managed to slip in and out of the aquatic center & saw the couple head for the 1959 Edsel Corsair & put their gear in the trunk of the car & it turns out that "Sheila" was the "owner" of the 1959 Edsel, because she was the driver while her swimming partner rode shotgun. It was a PG performance because the couple kept their swimwear on intact. Then a year later, at a downtown Theatre the movie, "Honky" was played & bypassed it because I was not assigned to write the review on this movie, but in 1973, I was assigned to review the movie to my group & told them the movie wasn't good because three Birmingham church bombers had their way with "Sheila" and needed a visit from Tojo Brown & his Samuari Sword & stated had they allowed an "Esther Williams type scene" where Brenda & John do their aquatic ballet & underwater love scene instead of being stoned on pot while they have there first act, this movie would make it. However there was another inter-racial Esther Williams love scene that made sense this time is was a bearded hero with a black T-shirt with a white thunderbolt on it & a black girl/street fighter who drove a 1959 Edsel Corsair which was red & white. When they did it as well as a ballroom scene where the couple did a "Prom Night" for two in their regular attire it was okay. The guy in that story was an incarnation of "King Arthur" and the black girl was supposed to be The Lady of The Lake & still was one in the indoor aquatic center & like Sheila, the street fighter which we will call "Curley" was Killed in Action, but her guy accepted his role & took on the bad guys & won & later in a follow up meet his future bride & showed that Curley did not die in vain for her efforts & came in handy when the bad guys brought in her impostor & knew well that Curley only puts out in the pool & not in the stairwell of the building slated as Ground Zero. Now if the hack writers who did "Honky" threw a good Esther Williams type love scene in the aquatic center it would be easy to see the story. From Marcus Brainard
An interesting era- but questionable.....
katzenjammer31 January 2001
"Honky" is about the inter-racial relationship between two high school kids, sliding off the rails in Middle America. Sheila (Brenda Sykes) is seventeen, black and some would say "a wild card". Her carefree attitude is, in part, defiance against her wealthy middle-class background.
At a high school football rally, she meets a white boy, Wayne (John Neilson) and the two hit it off. Wayne's mother is played by Marion Ross from TV's "Happy Days"- perhaps a spur for Sheila's attraction towards Wayne.
After a few sequences highlighting long lost daisy-age dialogue, Sheila asks for Wayne's help in dealing grass. After doing a drug run, the two get high and smash their wheels into another car. On this, the two pack their bags and flee west to California. On their way they encounter a doubtful group of rednecks, with a brutal plan in mind for the couple.
I don't know how accurate such films from the early '70s reflected racial attitudes of middle America- but ending this film on such a pessimistic note was a cop out. Why do so many films depicting Black and white relationships head towards an inevitable tragic outcome? It's also unfortunate that a character such as Sheila, living life with a rebellious sense of fun, should have to reach such a brutal comeuppance.
Still, there's much appeal for those wishing to dig up this 1971 time capsule. I'll even double this films rating thanks to Brenda Sykes- who is absolutely gorgeous. Someone should track her down for "Honky 2000", hopefully with an update on its racial comment.
At a high school football rally, she meets a white boy, Wayne (John Neilson) and the two hit it off. Wayne's mother is played by Marion Ross from TV's "Happy Days"- perhaps a spur for Sheila's attraction towards Wayne.
After a few sequences highlighting long lost daisy-age dialogue, Sheila asks for Wayne's help in dealing grass. After doing a drug run, the two get high and smash their wheels into another car. On this, the two pack their bags and flee west to California. On their way they encounter a doubtful group of rednecks, with a brutal plan in mind for the couple.
I don't know how accurate such films from the early '70s reflected racial attitudes of middle America- but ending this film on such a pessimistic note was a cop out. Why do so many films depicting Black and white relationships head towards an inevitable tragic outcome? It's also unfortunate that a character such as Sheila, living life with a rebellious sense of fun, should have to reach such a brutal comeuppance.
Still, there's much appeal for those wishing to dig up this 1971 time capsule. I'll even double this films rating thanks to Brenda Sykes- who is absolutely gorgeous. Someone should track her down for "Honky 2000", hopefully with an update on its racial comment.
Never knew what would happen next
tvsgael2-213 May 2011
I loved this movie for several reasons. It has a great cast of supporting actors, and the lovely Brenda Sykes. It has a plot and storyline that kept me "glued" throughout the film. I usually fast forward through sex scenes these days, but I was fascinated with what there was here. But if you think this is just a love story, you're mistaken. This couple goes through many changes together, including those that take them into extremely dangerous waters. The movie was made in the cherished "exploitation" times of the great National General Film Corporation, where I and many others were in "Drive-In Heaven" every time we saw one of these independent films that had a message, which was told in a style of visuals that often shocked, engrossed, or at the least entertained us throughout the movie. This was one of those films. MGM should be commended for giving us this film, which I don't recall ever seeing when it came out, but thanks to wwmovies for making available. I see a lot of free play movies on Netflix, and one benefit has been to get me interested in the films that have fallen through the cracks, out of sight to our current DVD releases. I also read Psychotronic books, which review titles that many of us have never heard of. If you ever see a title that falls into this lost category, I urge you to Google the title under the heading "Watch ....(title)or "(title DVD)". You may be amazed at the fact that someone has a copy on DVD R. Ioffer is another great source for obscure titles. Good luck.
Middling "checkerboard love" drama...a film of its time.
EyeAskance5 April 2004
In a more enlightened age when interracial relationships are widely accepted, films like HONKY are pretty much abandoned by relevance and exist primarily as a time capsule. This is, nonetheless, a fairly decent 20th century American love story wherein the all-American blond-haired white boy finds himself quite happy in the loving arms of a spirited young ebony goddess. Predictable tensions ensue, and culminate in a surprisingly bitter resolve.
Being that this film was made in a time of social tumult and radical change in America, it probably had a fair amount of appeal to younger audiences(there is quite a bit of a "flower child" element here...in one scene, a boy on a bridge pelts swimming ducks with rocks. Our leading lady touches him softly, saying "you'd better learn how to love, boy-child". We then see him tossing picked flowers into the water- LOL!)
This is not at all a "blaxploitation" item, as its title and time-period might lead some to believe. Still, HONKY is a fairly worthy low-budget romance/drama, and though it is(or at least...*was*) a rather exploitive picture, it approaches its subject matter with at least some degree of sensitivity and purpose.
4.5/10...see also the largely neglected but groundbreaking 60s picture "ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO" which demonstrates a far more proficient handling of similar issues.
Being that this film was made in a time of social tumult and radical change in America, it probably had a fair amount of appeal to younger audiences(there is quite a bit of a "flower child" element here...in one scene, a boy on a bridge pelts swimming ducks with rocks. Our leading lady touches him softly, saying "you'd better learn how to love, boy-child". We then see him tossing picked flowers into the water- LOL!)
This is not at all a "blaxploitation" item, as its title and time-period might lead some to believe. Still, HONKY is a fairly worthy low-budget romance/drama, and though it is(or at least...*was*) a rather exploitive picture, it approaches its subject matter with at least some degree of sensitivity and purpose.
4.5/10...see also the largely neglected but groundbreaking 60s picture "ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO" which demonstrates a far more proficient handling of similar issues.
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