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W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings More at IMDbPro »

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Easygoing down-home film comes really alive in second half, 24 March 2004

Author: herbqedi from New York, NY

In some ways, this is two different movies. Burt and Jerry getting back to their roots with Connie and the girls putting together the act and doing a bucolic type of road movie. The first part of the movie works well because of their chemistry with each other & with Conny Van Dyke.

Then Art Carney takes over the film, the pace quickens, wry humor and conflict push the down-home charm to the back burner. That's okay because Carney is on his game and delivers a terrific performance as a self-righteous and determined lawman. And, Burt seems to turn his energy up two notches when Carney shares the screen with him.

And, without giving anything up, they saved the best for last. The ending of this one is an all-time classic.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Unimaginative title hides a rather charming character study/star vehicle., 6 February 2009

Author: Poseidon-3 from Cincinnati, OH

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Anyone wondering how Reynolds became a top box office draw and off screen personality in the 70s need look no further than this film, despite its mediocre box office performance. As a ne'er do well con man and stick-up artist, he oozes charm and charisma throughout (and looks dang good in a series of snug trousers!) Taking place in the 50s, the film has Reynolds stealing from a series of gas stations, for whom he has vengeance in mind, but then becoming entangled with a charming and naïve country music band (called Dixie and the Dancekings) and posing as their manager. He finagles them into a small Nashville club and works as much of his charm as he can to get them noticed, but still has to resort to hold-ups in order to bankroll them. Eventually, the oil company sends out Bible-thumping ex-sheriff Carney to reel Reynolds in, just as the band is on the threshold of enjoying some degree of success. Reynolds is sly and handsome, working his brand of magic on the women of the film, yet winning over most of the men as well. This is gentle, easy comedy for the most part and he assays it beautifully. Van Dyke, in her feature debut, is an unusual type for Reynolds to act opposite, but they manage a solid amount of chemistry and she does an admirable job. Reed, a longtime friend of Reynolds' who would later costar in the "Smokey and the Bandit" films with him, is also good. Carney takes a heavy-handed approach here and is almost unrecognizable in such a stern role. A lot of notable and familiar faces from the country and TV milieu appear in supporting roles and cameos. Quirky enough to be unpredictable and interesting, even heartfelt at times, it's also not any sort of blockbuster movie. It sets out to entertain with some music, some humorous set pieces and the innate affability of its star and on those terms, it succeeds nicely.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Silly but fun entertainment, 10 June 1999

Author: Robert W. Anderson (bayareabob@mac.com) from United States

This is one of my guilty pleasures. I enjoyed this movie for what it was. A film that's fun to watch. The secret seems to be a good cast. The story is not very deep. Rent it---if you feel like some southern fried fun

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Good Family and Country Entertainment, 7 February 2006

Author: dbowes1 from Gray, Maine

I saw this movie when it first came out and enjoyed it from the opening scene. The sounds are so grounded in country it is had to explain to someone who has never lived in the south. Regardless, this was a production worth the money and found no reason why it did not take off at the box office. Jerry Reed is great, Don Williams is superb and Connie Van Dyke did the best she could do and for me that was enough. Of course I have always liked Richard Hurst especially as the father to Michael J. fox in the Werewolf movies he made. Art Carney, what can you say about this man, always puts his soul into a performance and he surely did that in this one. I have attempted many times to purchase a copy of it and could not locate it so if any one may know where I might buy a DVD of this great movie please let me know.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Don't know why, 21 October 2004

Author: Pamsanalyst from New Jersey

this film has such a mediocre rating. It's a fine night's entertainment and it takes us back to an earlier time in country music before every big and medium-size city had its country station. The important thing is not to lose patience during the first half, when it seems like it will be forever before they get their act on the road, and pay no mind to the back story about the Southern Oil Company....in fact the 'hold up' of the bank really doesn't fit the rest of the film, it is almost too surreal, like Burt's Olds. Reynolds comes off like the poor man's Sam Phillips, getting these crackers onto Grand Ole Opry, and that moment when he spurns Van Dyke's advances as he hears the boys launching into something that sounds like music is stirring.

That era is gone, but treasure the final scenes when Art Carney's car radio pulls in sounds from the ether that you won't hear today on the airwaves, where every voice comes out of broadcasting school. Rate this somewhere about 7 on a scale of 10.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
This is a fun, fun movie!, 20 February 2001
Author: Michael Cover (Burt_Reynolds_fan) from Baltimore, MD

This & "White Lightning" are my all-time favorite Burt Reynolds films. this is at the height of his comedic, feel-good roles. Not many actors are as likable as Burt, which makes this goofy film a treat. Burt plays W.W. Bright, an ex-S.O.S. gas station employee who goes around robbing his old employers. A conman & loner, well at least he was before he ran into Dixie & the Dancekings. Pretending to be a Nashville music agent, he gets tangled in lies & cons, & before too long he gets attached to the band. Now he'll do as much as possible to help them out. Lots of fun!

6 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
shake your groove thang!, 23 May 2005

Author: farnum from seattle

This is one of most realistic of all the country music/bank-robber movies made in the 70s. I ought to know, because back when I lived in Georgia (just like Burt Reynolds!) I used to ride around in a van with a band called A**factor 4. We never held up any banks of course, but their name was aptly chosen. It's so stinky because its true! Surprisingly enough, a lot of the hi-jinx that The Dixie Dancekings got into because of WW, like robbing banks and hanging out with Ned Beatty are a lot like what we used to do too, like wearing overalls without any shirt or shoes. I'm pretty sure I never even owned a pair of shoes until I was 18! Anyway, once I saw one of the stars of WW and The Dixie Dance kings on a talk show, and I was in the audience at the taping! It was Ned Beatty and it was at a filming for the Ross somebody show. The next day Adam West was on! But that's of different story. What I like so much about W.W. and the Dixie Danckings (WWatDDK) is the way WW and Wayne get along on screen. Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed have such a natural chemistry that you can tell that the two men really love each other in real life (but maybe not REEL life!). That's why it was so hard to watch Burt smash Jerry's head in the dumpster when they were playing Gator McClusky and Bammy McCaul in the following years classic Georgia film, Gator. And I think it must have been even harder for them, but especially Jerry, because it was his head that was getting smashed all the time. But this movie has no such dumpster-head-smashing, thank goodness. Just good old boy fun like I used to have back in Georgia, wearing a straw hat, smoking a corncob pipe and riding around in a smelly van with A**factor 4. They smell like an A** Factory! I think you should go out and watch WWatDDK tonight.

Reynolds Doing What He Does Best, 25 April 2013

Author: dougdoepke from Claremont, USA

It's a Burt Reynolds showcase. He plays the charming rogue to the hilt, a perpetual grin on that care-free mug. As the rootless WW, he tools around the South in a flashy car, sticking up gas stations in, yes, friendly fashion. However, it's really one of those big corporations, viz. SOS, that he picks on since he's got a grudge against their heartless ways. But then he hooks up with a promising hillbilly band The Dixie Dancekings, promoting their career in his inimitable way. That is, when he's not sticking up SOS banks, again,in friendly fashion. But the big boys in suits don't take kindly to his spree. So they sic a Bible spouting gumshoe (Carney) on his trail, a Deacon in black who looks like he's practicing for the Evil Dead.

I expect a movie like this, filled with Southern stereotypes plus Reynolds smashing his share of hot cars, is mainly a matter of taste. But I found the general goofiness hard to resist. It's a perfect role for Reynold's brand of leering charm. At the same time, it's an uptight Art Carney, a million miles from his good-natured dimwit Ed Norton of the Honeymooners. Of course, there's the usual amount of car bashing and Keystone Cop car chases for a Reynolds movie. Plus, I really like the slow, engaging way WW takes over the fortunes of the Dixie Dancekings. You just know they'll make it big, but will the non-musical WW with the Deacon on his trail.

All in all, the movie's an entertaining 90-minutes of Reynolds nonsense, despite my better judgment.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
He's a mixture of manure and sincerity...just don't call him a Communist!, 10 November 2008

Author: moonspinner55 from las vegas, nv

Director John G. Avildsen fit in this low-keyed comedy between his "Save the Tiger" and "Rocky" ("Tiger" screenwriter, Steve Shagan, served as executive producer here). It's a Robin Hood-styled, anti-hero story with musical asides and a distinct feeling for the South in the late-1950s (the nostalgia for the era isn't laid on with a trowel, and the evocative milieu is very loose and natural). Thomas Rickman's screenplay tries for originality in its characterization, though the movie's charms lie mainly in the impeccable casting, the filming locations, and in the colorful detail (Avildsen shows a gift for throw-away pleasures and minute, happy bits of business). Burt Reynolds, grinning up a storm, is on the run from the law after robbing a series of filling stations with a water pistol; he takes up with a traveling country-western band for cover, but slowly begins to appreciate the friendships he makes there. Conny Van Dyke's Dixie, the band's singer-guitarist, is a marvelous creation (and the actress nearly upstages Reynolds in the bargain), however Art Carney's Deacon arrives too late (when interest in these adventures begins to flag). It isn't a terribly memorable (or even successful) picture, but bits of it do work a little ramshackle magic. ** from ****

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Perfect Script, perfect cast, great music, Burt's unclaimed best!, 30 December 2005

Author: g_verdi from United States

Tom Rickman (who later wrote Coal Miner's Daughter and won an Oscar I think) absolutely knows southerners and their vernacular... he HAS to be from the south. John Alvidsen pulls all the colorful characters through a rapid-fire plot with plenty of funny, funny action.

Art Carney is perfect as "Deacon Gore" and the man who plays Elton O. Byrd almost steals the show as head of the S.O.S. Oil Enterprise. Jerry Reed, Conny Van Dyke, Don Williams, James Hampton and Richard Hurst are the perfect goof-ball country band from Georgia. Strangely Burt Reynolds never mentions this film in his printed biogs, perhaps because it wasn't a smash at the box office, but it's a total delight to see. You cannot even get a video of this...it was only released on that terrible RCA disc system, so it wasn't picked up for either VHS, Laser or DVD. I have the poster and I try to see it on cable but it's not there either. Too bad... it's a perfect film.

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