Macon County Line (1974)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Richard Compton

Writers:

Max Baer Jr. (writer)
Richard Compton (writer)

Release Date:

1 December 1975 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Tagline:

It was the fall of '54. A time when laughing was easy. And laugh they did, until they crossed the ... Macon County Line.

Plot:

A vengeful Southern sheriff is out for blood after his wife is brutally killed by a pair of drifters...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Revenge | 1950s | Murder | Female Nudity

Cast

Alan Vint	...	Chris Dixon
Cheryl Waters	...	Jenny Scott
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Hamp
Joan Blackman	...	Carol Morgan
Jesse Vint	...	Wayne Dixon
Sam Gilman	...	Deputy Bill
Timothy Scott	...	Lon
James Gammon	...	Elisha
Leif Garrett	...	Luke Morgan (as Lief Garrett)
Emile Meyer	...	Gurney
Doodles Weaver	...	Augie
Avil Williams	...	Public Defender
Jay Adler	...	Impound Yard Man
Roger Camras	...	Man in Car
David Orange	...	1st Highway Patrolman

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Iceland:16 | Sweden:11 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Sacramento, California, USA

Company:

Consolidated Productions

Trivia:

The movie was written on the back of scripts by Max Baer Jr. during breaks in filming _"The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962)_.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Macon County Line: 25 Years Down the Road (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON

Tense, Tragic, Highly Watchable

Macon County Line was apparently a huge hit at the drive-ins when it came out in the seventies but since I seldom went to drive-ins I missed it. A few years ago I caught it on television, and was very impressed, not so much by the story but by the way it's told. The film concerns a couple of out-of-town brothers caught up in violent crime and mistaken identity in the Deep South, where, in movie terms anyway, it's never a good place to be a Yankee without a road map, or worse, have your car break down. The story unfolds at a decent clip, and the actors are all good, some much better than than that. It's interesting seeing an old-timer like Emile Meyer in a movie with an up-and-comer like Leif Garret. The real surprise in the film is the strong, silent performance of Max Baer, Jr. in the key role of the deputy sheriff. Like most viewers, I tend to think of Baer as the gentle, simple giant, Jethro, on the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies. As the lawman in this movie Baer actually gives a serious performance. As a dramatic actor he comes off a little like James Garner, a little like Clint Eastwood, but he has a distinctive style of his own. There's something rock solid about Baer. He has real screen presence, and he comes off as alternately heroic and frightening, depending on what he's up to at the moment. Baer also produced the movie, and made a fortune from it. Baer may in real life be a gentle giant, but he sure ain't a simple one.

This is at times a very dark movie, violent and forbidding, and at times almost painfully tense. It may be a product of the Burt Reynolds good old boy era of movie-making, but it plays very differently from the kinds of films Reynolds made, closer in style to Sam Fuller or Phil Karlson.