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SECOND FIDDLE Second to None For Classic 1960's Country Musi

"Tee" | LA | 07/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"SECOND FIDDLE TO A STEEL GUITAR is one of several low-budget country musicals of the 1960's which feature country stars of the era singing their hits. Plots are often very thin ("acting" is usually limited to a few minutes of the movie, the rest of it is mainly singing) but it's great to see the pioneers of "the Nashville sound" in color at their peak. This movie has been out on DVD for a year and seems curiously to have attracted little attention, yet it was released by no less than Time-Life (albeit without fanfare). So hopefully my suggestion to Amazon about naming the cast will attract buyers, this is a title that I know classic country fans will love. The film's print is a beautiful 35mm alas it is an imperfect one with a number of scratches on it. It would have been nice if Time Life could have remastered this and cleaned it up but let's be thankful they've released it at all.

The "plot" has character actor Arnold Stang (a familiar face of the era in commercials and small parts in various comedies) and his wife enlisting the aid of country greats to come to the rescue of a benefit concert in Nashville when the scheduled Italian opera company proves unavailable. Mrs. Stang is a snob and doesn't think the hillbillies will wow the swells while her husband is a closet country fan. Erstwhile Bowery Boys stars Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are also around for comedy bits in rare film appearances years after the Bowery series ended.

This movie has quite a star-packed lineup and unlike many of the 60's country musicals, the stars are often not singing their latest record at the time but one (or two) of their greatest hits. Thus we have Kitty Wells doing "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", Faron Young singing "Hello Walls", Lefty Frizzell with "Sagniaw Michigan", Sonny James doing "Young Love", Connie Smith performing "Once a Day", Carl Butler & Pearl singing "Don't Let Me Cross Over", Webb Pierce performing "I Ain't Never", Del Reeves' singing "Girl on The Billboard", and George Hamilton IV singing "Abilene". There's also great numbers from Bill Monroe, Dottie West, Little Jimmy Dickens, Johnny Wright, Billy Walker, and the famous musicans Curly Fox, Pete Drake, Old Joe Clark, and Buddy Spicher. The once enormously popular country comics Homer and Jethro are also here in an extremely rare chance to see their act these days and most endearing is beloved Opry legend Minnie Pearl who does some hillbilly standup and performs one of her comic songs "Careless Love".

As a movie musical, this ain't TOP HAT or SINGING IN THE RAIN but it is a fantastic time capsule of many of the legendary country artists, nine of whom have since been made members of the Country Music Hall of Fame."