The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Colin Higgins

Writers:

Larry L. King (magazine article)
Larry L. King (musical) ...

Release Date:

23 July 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Tagline:

With Burt and Dolly this much fun just couldn't be legal!

Plot:

Town Sherif and regular patron, fights to keep a historical whorehouse open when a TV preacher targets it as the Devils playhouse. |

Plot Keywords:

Television Reporter | Based On Magazine Article | Swearing | Blockbuster | Based On Musical

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 26	3:00 PM	CMTV
Sun. July 26	8:15 PM	CMTV

Cast

Burt Reynolds	...	Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd
Dolly Parton	...	Mona Stangley
Dom DeLuise	...	Melvin P. Thorpe
Charles Durning	...	Governor
Jim Nabors	...	Deputy Fred
Robert Mandan	...	Senator Charles Wingwood
Lois Nettleton	...	Dulcie Mae
Theresa Merritt	...	Jewel
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Edsel
Barry Corbin	...	C.J.
Ken Magee	...	Mansel
Mary Jo Catlett	...	Rita Crowell
Mary Louise Wilson	...	Miss Modene
Howard K. Smith	...	Himself
Gail Benedict	...	Chicken Ranch Girl

Also Known As:

The Best Little Cathouse in Texas (Canada: English title) (bowdlerized title)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Peru:14 | South Korea:18 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (DVD rating) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:R (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Singapore:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

RKO Pictures

Trivia:

The original Broadway production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" opened at the 46th Street Theater on June 19, 1978 and ran for 1584 performances. The musical on which the movie version was based was nominated for the 1979 Tony Award for Best Musical and the 1979 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sheriff Dodd punches Melvin P. Thorpe and sends him sliding across the floor, Thorpe slides across a design in the floor and stops with his head and shoulders outside the design. The following aerial shot shows him with his head centered perfectly in the middle of the design.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Deputy Fred: It was the nicest little whorehouse you ever saw!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Best Little Special in Texas (1982) (TV)

Soundtrack:

20 Fans

Dolly's Voice

The pure part of this film is Dolly's voice, with its warble, its touch of yodel, its complete inability to resists little trills, mordents, all the musical embellishments that are mirrored in her visual presence, her couture. And since the sumptuous breasts are maybe even a bit too much here--with many gown changes in the big numbers--that is all the more striking that it is still the singing that stands out. Jim Nabors, for example, takes some time to seem bearable to me, but finally the whole context works; but the movie seems like it is going to be horrible till Dolly's first phrase in the "Pissant Country Place" song.

Carol Hall's "Rock Candy Christmas" is a good number, but putting Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" was the smartest thing done musically here; in no way is the subsequent Whitney Houston version comparable in either sincerity or just naturalness of lovely sound--she uses little ornaments, too, but changes them as if to be original; all you really notice is that she didn't use the ones Dolly had already made perfect, as if they were as firm and fixed as the melody line itself. It was a considerably smarter thing than using "My Man" in 'Funny Girl', when "The Music that Makes Me Dance" would have made the show keep its original musical integrity; and leaving out the Ziegfeld Follies type numbers "Cornet Man" and "Rat-tat-tat" depleted this film, leaving it only great in moments ('Don't Rain on My Parade' is really the only great one.)

Burt Reynolds is a charmer as the sheriff and his and Dolly's affection for each other is sweet and moving. All of their scenes together work because they fully enjoy them, enjoy each other.

Certain big production numbers--the Aggies football players dancing in the locker room, then when they get to the Chicken Ranch, for example--seem to be low imitations of old Agnes de Mille choreography in 'Oklahoma', full of old-fashioned "cowboy high spirits" (one cannot keep from enjoying how non-cowboy most of the dancers must surely be) that have nothing new in them and merely seem mechanical.

It's a better Dolly Parton movie--though certainly not great--as a whole than 'Nine to Five', but nothing has ever quite surpassed the poetic genius of that picture's title song, in which Dolly has captured so basic a part of most people's daily life that you can hardly believe that the song is actually there to question its very validity, which it does with no qualms at all.

"Workin' nine to five, what a way to make a livin'... and later: "You would think that I would deserve a fat promotion... They just use your mind, and they never give you credit, It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it."

The real artist that she is peers through all the fluff from time to time, perhaps getting it through the fluff is the way it is proved.