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.
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dbowes17 February 2006
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bkoganbing23 October 2014This one is definitely my favorite Burt Reynolds film. Here Burt plays W.W. one charming crook who's made it his life's work to take from a certain chain of gas stations wherever and whenever he can. But just because Reynolds has a grudge against the company no reason to take it out on the poor filling station attendants. Leaving them a little something extra guarantees them giving police descriptions of a kaleidoscopic variety.
The Dance Kings are country dance band looking for the big break and they're headed by Jerry Reed. Conny Van Dyke is their singer named Dixie. Time and circumstance throw Reynolds and the band together and with his natural charm and gift of gab Burt guarantees to make them a success and some more filling station holdups finance their future.
But the company ain't taking this lying down. The head of the company is Sherman G. Lloyd one harder than hardshell Baptist. He hires his own investigator, former southern sheriff now gospel preacher Art Carney and he's a dedicated man of the law and the Lord always in reverse order. In fact his own strict moral code trips him up in the end in a really grand climax.
W.W. And The Dixie Dancekings is a film that I can't imagine anyone else making but Burt Reynolds. It's maybe the drollest performance he ever put on the big screen.
Art Carney for those who see him as lovable dumb Ed Norton are in for quite a revelation. Carney is so different, but so good as Deacon John S. Gore who never let it be said took his religious beliefs nightly. He gets himself on a gospel show financed by Lloyd who by the way plays it as a Strother Martin light. I think that was who was intended for the part originally. He uses the radio audience to locate that 'devil' Burt Reynolds.
W.W. And The Dixie Dancekings is not a great film, but it is great rollicking entertainment. -
moonspinner5510 November 2008Director John G. Avildsen fit this low-keyed comedy in 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 throwaway 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 a 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, however there are moments scattered about that work a little ramshackle magic. ** from ****
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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.
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A great Ensemble joins Burt Reynolds for this enjoyable, light-hearted action crime comedy where the easygoing Burt shows up at gas stations operated by the same company, revealed to be a crooked preacher played by Art Carney. Burke has musical Ambitions and gets himself involved in a country and western band and after surprising them by making a stop to rob a small gas station, he has them joining in on other heists in between gigs. After one gas station attempt at a robbery fails, they decide to target a bank, and it's none other than Polly Holliday as the nervous but friendly clerk, keeping her cool even though she is presented with a tin box birth claims is filled with dynamite ready to explode. There are a lot of familiar faces in small roles in this movie, but it's Carney and Ned Beatty as a vain country western star who stand out, even among a few real-life country performers which includes Mel Tillis.
There isn't as much a plot as a series of situations that are very comical, and it's basically Burt's rant against corporate takeovers of smaller businesses and the abuse of their employees. When he robs a gas station, he always shares a bit of what he takes with the clerk, giving them instructions on how to cover themselves with both their bosses and the police. The chase sequences are very funny, and the aftermath of the non successful bombing of the bank is hysterical. Under the direction of John G. Avildsen (who would score a big hit the following year with "Rocky"), this is a fast-moving comedy action film with lots of great country and western songs to keep the doors toe-tapping as they root for Burt and his gang to continue to succeed. I was a little disappointed with the ending however, but at least it wasn't left open for a possible sequel like other Burt action comedies. -
ronaldjkay6 November 2021After many years of absence this movie was available on DVD. Viewing this as an adult (first time I was 13) I have a hard time wondering what it is about.
On the plus side, we get to see what a great actor Burt Reynolds was. Very underrated. Art Carney gives a great performance as well as the supporting cast of familiar faces from other Reynolds movies of the 70's.
Reynolds gave a riveting performance of a manipulative opportunist, with the charming pretty boy persona we all knew and loved.
Whatever the gags were, they were not funny. Not your typical action/car chase film of the 70's. Ham handed sudden punctuation of drama with stunts does not make it an action movie. Caricatures of Southern stereotypes although well played are simply not funny. If this movie has some deeper meaning, I failed to grasp it. Story line? Moral? I fail to grasp it. The hero is let off the hook in the last scene on a technicality by his antagonist, as well as given the tool to keep on running. No real redemption for our hero, no nothing.
This movie disappeared after the last time I saw it on television in the 1980's. It never made it to VHS finally found it in 2021 of DVD from Germany. There is no question in my mind as to why. -
planktonrules26 September 2021"W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings" is a Burt Reynolds film that has some nice portions (I was particularly surprised how well Ned Beatty sang), but the film has some serious logical lapses...especially at the end.
When the story begins, W. W. (Burt Reynolds) is out robbing gas stations owned by a corporation he apparently hates. But, he's so nice and friendly that the station attendants like him and often give inaccurate accounts for what happened. Soon, W. W. meets up with a musical group that he likes and, to make himself look big, he makes all sorts of promises to make them famous in Nashville....something he really cannot in any way promise. The rest of the film is about his efforts to make them famous as well as his robbing some more gas stations as well as a bank owned by the same folks.
This is a slice of life film that seems to have little in the way of a beginning or an ending. Some folks might not mind that, but I was irritated by the ending....which made no sense at all and left everything dangling. A truly odd but watchable film. -
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. -
Pamsanalyst21 October 2004this 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. -
bbbaldie3 November 2013Burt hit it big in the 70's, but some of his best stuff is now obscure. This film was poorly based on a book, and that's cost it in terms of appreciation, but after all these years it stands up well on its own. Sure, there are silly plot holes, but it's a lighthearted comedy that features some great country and bluegrass, and a rockin' Jerry Reed belting out a respectable Johnny B. Goode, too! But particularly savor the fifteen minutes or so given to Memphis blues legend Furry Lewis. That man played a wicked slide guitar, and I'm not sure how much footage actually exists besides this film.
Art Carney was perfect as the preacher with a gun and plenty of fire and brimstone who loved tracking down the occasional sinner/thief. Yes, there's great comedy here too, but the music is what makes the film.
This film was replayed a lot on 70's TV, that's where I learned to love it. And after having watched it last night (on a poor TV-formatted copy which was, I believe, otherwise unedited), I believe it's gotten better with age. Don Williams showed that he was a pretty darned good actor in addition to being a successful country crooner of the era. Mel Tillis was great as a goofy gas station attendant. But savor Furry Lewis. How wonderful that we got to see this wonderful legend in good health making that slide guitar scream on his front porch. -
The most famous movie starring Burt Reynolds as a southern dude driving around to avoid the law is 1977's "Smokey and the Bandit". Two years earlier he starred in the similar "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings", and this time there's a lot of singing to accompany the lawbreaking. Reynolds plays a small-time crook who joins up with a country music group. His bank robberies incur the CEO's wrath, and a lawman comes after him and the band.
The movie - directed by "Rocky"'s John G. Avildsen - shouldn't get seen as anything highbrow. It's an excuse to have a lot of fun. I suspect that they had a lot of fun making it. There needs to be a festival emphasizing chase-themed movies. It would show this one, "Smokey and the Bandit", "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie" and some others. Although this movie isn't available on any home viewing format, it's available on YouTube (has the 21st century made us lazy or what?).
Really fun. -
Reel_entertainment20 February 2001This & "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!
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Bronco4610 June 1999This 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
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bonniefabregas6 September 2018One of my favorite Burt Reynolds' movies...Saw it for the first time at a drive-in movie theater in Central Ohio. One of my favorite memories is the laughter coming from my parents and I because we had lived in TN and got the humor. The local audience in OH missed it.
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farnum23 May 2005This 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.
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undercoverjoe30 September 2014The legendary blues singer, guitarist Furry Lewis plays basically himself as Uncle Furry. That alone is worth getting a copy of this, if possible. It's also the first screen role for Jerry Reed who went on to many more movies with Burt.
Nice casting of Art Carney as Decon Gore and also has Ned Beatty in a nice role. There is always great music especially if you like country blues, especially the scenes with Furry and Jerry Reed jamming on some blues songs created on the spot, singing round the campfire. Great down country feel.
A nice all around cast with James Hampton (in many Burt movies of that time), Polly Holliday and even a quick Mel Tillis sighting. -
dougdoepke25 April 2013It'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. -
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. -
It is tempting to try to interpret this movie as an allegory. There's a right way to live life, with eternity in view, and a wrong way to live life, for the moment. W.W. stands for "Wrong Way," as in Wrong Way Feldman on Gilligan's Island. Bright means brighter than the rest, as "A Connecticutt Yankee in King Arthur's Court." The movie begins in the carefree days of 1957. W.W. drives past a sign saying "Christ Is Coming Again", a belief of Southern Baptist dispensationalism. Well, the viewer knows that Christ hasn't come again yet, so it seems that people in 1957 who looked for Christ to come soon and threatened others with that message weren't very bright, were backwoods superstitious fanatics. There was a lot of uniformity and conformity in the 1950s South. Churchgoing reached a peak during the Eisenhower years. The oil company Southland Oil System's initials, "S.O.S.", also stand for "Save Our Souls." W.W. Bright is a man who is trying to "beat the system." The head of S.O.S., Elton C. Byrd, hires ex-law-man and now "man of God" radio evangelist, John Wesley Gore, to stop W.W. Bright from taking advantage of S.O.S. John Wesley was the founder of Methodist-Holiness Arminianism that requires constant holiness to retain one's eternal salvation. What does Gore stand for? I don't know. Wasn't Gore a big name in Tennessee law? Maybe he was just gory. Anyway, W.W. burns his car, and in the end of the movie Gore won't break the commandment about observing the sabbath and gives W.W. another car and a chance to get away. Interestingly enough, the Smokey and the Bandit movies also featured a black car and a pursuing figure from the Jackie Gleason show who kept pursuing Reynolds's character. In fact, in Part 3, Smokey lets the Bandit get away so he can keep on pursuing him. "What would Wile E. Coyote be without the Roadrunner?" Perhaps this intends to show that organized Christianity needs sinners to harp at so it can stay in business. Anyway, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings is possibly Burt's finest movie when you think about it. The End (1978) was pretty good.
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DixieDanceKings31 January 2004I adore this movie,it's hilarious,and totally UNDER rated,filled with fun,fun,fun,and I would recommend it to anyone from the ages of 5 through 90!!!LOVED it!Burt Reynolds is at his VERY BEST in this movie,check it out!
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ianlouisiana1 February 2006Since his days as a native American detective on TV ("Hawk" was it?),I've admired Burt Reynolds'refusal to take himself too seriously and to treat most of his movies as the larks they were. It may not have gained him too many friends amongst the po-faced critics,but its put a lot of bums on seats for a lot of years.He has a serious side(Director and star of the marvellous "Sharky's Machine")but can generally be relied on to get you onside by the force of his innate good nature."W.W. and the dixie dance kings"is a splendid Country and Western that doesn't take itself at all seriously and everybody involved has a really great time.Burt plays a good ol' boy petrol station robber who gets involved with a C&W band,we get a chance to see the considerable blues artist Mr Furry Lewis,and Burt wears some really cool cowboy boots throughout.It has absolutely no pretensions to be anything other than a nifty piece of entertainment.Unlike "o brother where art thou?" it does not set out to be art(an irony in itself because in Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" the whole point is that the film within a film called "o brother where art thou?" is junked by it's creator for being pretentious),and the music is better. George Clooney's career could be said to be shadowing that of Mr Rerynolds,he certainly shares his ability to make difficult things look natural and easy,and his charm and comic timing.He has also turned his hand quite successfully to directing.I've got a feeling Burt would have turned down "From dusk till dawn "though .
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dan_still15 August 2021OH, because Burt was not really famous yet there was no real promotion and it was a virtual box office flop despite a great cast, the kind of story and scenes that would make Smokey And The Bandit FAMOUS. Though a familiar face on GUNSMOKE this role had nothing to do with that and everything to do with what Burt Reynolds movies were ALL ABOUT in the near future. If you read the other reviews everyone raves about this film from a different view yet it touched many hearts in many ways and left solid impressions that have lasted for years despite the fact there is NO way to watch this movie whenever you get the hankering. That in itself suggests the undiscovered gem quality that EVEN STILL lays mostly undiscovered because there is no way to watch this movie. You cannot rent a tape or a DVD and a BLU_RAY is much further off than that and yet the STRONG REVIEWS all have a different story on WHY this Is better than the movies that made these stars famous. I saw it on Cleveland television, probably the same year it was in the theatre, to give you an idea what a flop it was, and never forgot it. I have rewatched it faithfully for years, (whenever someone dusts it off for rebroadcast ). A "BURT REYNOLDS" revival shouldn't be that far off when somebody rediscovers a great star who didn't care so much about making money or fame as he did about doing the WORK that leads to that and LIVING THE LIFE, rather than promoting the life. Doing the work rather than working for the rewards the OSCARS and the other ceremonial BS that seems to be better than the work that gets you those. Now I"VE digressed. FIND IT, WATCH IT, IT"S A HOOT!!!
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bcola-4439431 December 2020This movie was probably forgettable to some but is actually a good movie with a great cast. If you liked Smokey and the Bandit this will be to your liking!