Goin' South (1978)

Due to the lack of men after the Civil War, a small western town allows a bachelorette with ulterior motives to save a horse thief from the gallows by marrying him. They must deal with his old gang, the Sheriff, the bank, and each other.

Director:

Jack Nicholson

Writers:

John Herman Shaner (story), Al Ramrus (story)

Stars:

Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack Nicholson	...	Henry Lloyd Moon
Mary Steenburgen	...	Julia Tate Moon
Christopher Lloyd	...	Deputy Towfield
John Belushi	...	Deputy Hector
Veronica Cartwright	...	Hermine, Moon's Old Gang
Richard Bradford	...	Sheriff Andrew Kyle
Jeff Morris	...	Big Abe, Moon's Old Gang
Danny DeVito	...	Hog, Moon's Old Gang
Tracey Walter	...	Coogan, Moon's Old Gang
Gerald H. Reynolds	...	Polty, Rail Road Manager
Luana Anders	...	Lorette Anderson
George W. Smith	...	Mr. Anderson
Lucy Lee Flippin	...	Diane Haber
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Whitey Haber
Maureen Byrnes	...	Mrs. Warren

Storyline

Texas, shortly after the Civil War. Henry Moon is an outlaw, on the run from the law. He is captured trying to escape to Mexico and taken back to town to be hanged. The town has a special law that a condemned man can walk free if one of the single women of the town offer to marry him. Henry is in luck - at the last moment Julia Tate offers to marry him, and pretty soon they are married. However, Henry soon discovers that Julia's motives are purely business-orientated - she needs someone to work the mine on her property. This makes for a very cold marriage.

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Plot Keywords:

bare chested male | hairy chest | implied nudity | implied male nudity | man undressing | 

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Taglines:

For Henry Moon, life was just beginning.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

This western was filmed in Durango, Mexico, which Mexicans call "La Tierra del Cine". At the time of production, over seventy westerns had shot there, and had been a regular filming location for John Wayne Westerns. The Duke's son had built a Western set construction town there, which got rented out for movie productions. This movie utilized this locale, making just a few re-purposed sign and color adjustments for the film to be shot in the same place as Wayne's recent earlier Western Chisum (1970). Ironically, Wayne and Nicholson have both portrayed characters called Jake, Wayne in Big Jake (1971) and Nicholson in Chinatown (1974) and The Two Jakes (1990).

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Goofs

After the ladies had their chat in the kitchen, a whistle tells that the water is boiling. The kettle shown in close up is a plain water kettle and has no whistle.

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Quotes

Henry Moon: Hold on, Towfield, you're wrinklin' my good luck ban-dan-na.

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Crazy Credits

The Paramount logo plays in reverse.

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Connections

Referenced in Batman (1989)

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Soundtracks

Beautiful Dreamer
Written by Stephen Foster
[Sung at the party when Moon's gang comes to visit him.]

User Reviews

Wow. A cocaine-fueled disaster.

One can't help but notice how Nicholson eventually gave up on concealing his hilariously obvious coke nose (to the untrained ear it just sounds like "allergies"- this is the usual excuse given, of course....).

Over the counter allergy medicine can help with allergy symptoms. Nothing helps cocaine-blasted sinuses.

Not even Scorsese could direct while coked up. Nicholson's attempt is considerably more disastrous. Take a second look at the cast (see Belushi) and it isn't hard to deduce what happened to this movie.

Note that it gets steadily worse as the film progresses.

I wasn't expecting a "great" movie being that this was Nicholson's only directing effort. I was just curious. I didn't expect something this bad. Yikes.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Goin' South

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Box Office

Gross USA:

$7,435,671

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,435,671

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 109 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Mono)

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1