Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) User Reviews

A Lifetime Ambition Satisfied

[boblipton · 3/10 · 15 March 2020]

I've wanted to see HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE for nigh onto half a century, since I first noticed it in Steven Scheuer's (sp?) movie guide and saw that it starred Sherlock Holmes! By which I meant Basil Rathbone. I wanted to see it because.... well, to understand how Basil Rathbone could be in a movie called HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. To my youthful mind, full of 1960s idealism and similar nonsense, it all seemed as unlikely as.... well, as Basil Rathbone being in a movie called HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE, if not more so. Doubtless, since he was Sherlock Holmes, he would explain and it would be obvious ever after.

Well, decades have passed and I have become wiser -- some would say more cynical, but that's just the attitude I've come to expect from the 'oi polloi. Many other people have played Holmes, although none so entertainingly, and still my interest in seeing HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE has not slackened, until this evening, when I came home from the barber, freshly shorn, to find on my dvr....guess what?

If you guessed HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE, then you've guessed correctly and you must explain how you did it. Once upon a time I would have found it awful beyond words, but time has taught me many words, -- most of which I cannot use here -- the meaning of Ham & Bud and Paulie Shore, and I've seen Buster Keaton in THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI, and Mickey Rooney reduced to a bit part in NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM 2, and Maya Angelou in CALYPSO HEAT WAVE, a Sam Katzman movie. So, after noting that 1960s pop/country is not one of my preferred genres, that the cobbled plot of hillbillies, haunted houses and spies is just as unimportant as all the other movies which serve to string together teenage songs in sub-AIP fare, I will note that Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine and Basil Rathbone perform their scene with a guy in a gorilla costume as well as they can be expected to and it is simply average awful. Even if I think Don Bowman, playing Jeepers is just how I would have imagined a character named Jeepers in 1967.

Excuse me? Isn't this movie over? Are these the credits? Why are they still singing?

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 24 June 2007]

For what it was, "Hillbillies" wasn't really all that bad. By this I mean that it isn't stultifyingly awful or technically incompetent like most of Jesse Franco's output. It isn't stupid and disgusting like Ted V. Mikels' films. Yes, it's pretty silly and the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense - think "Hitchcock filtered through 'God's Little Acre' and about 2 quarts of moonshine". But it has a couple of real actors in it, and some genuine musical talent that distracts from the skimpy plot, and a person who wasn't feeling especially discriminating could conceivably enjoy it if he or she had a few drinks.

But what distinguishes this movie as a cinematic train wreck is the fact that the last 20 minutes or so is pure filler.In fact the last 20 minutes should have been the middle 20 minutes. By this I mean that once the actual plot is over - the bad guys are captured and everything is wrapped up - the movie should be over, except for maybe a recap or a "farewell" coda. And normally in a movie like this at this point you'd expect the musician/actors to perform a number (to a wildly enthusiastic audience) as the credits roll.

Instead, the screenplay does a "Merry Widow" and proceeds to parade a random bunch of folk and country music stars on camera who do their little musical turns and walk off. For 20+ minutes! I kept looking at my watch and thinking "Surely this will be the last number...oh NOES, here they go AGAIN!"

It's the oddest sensation. For all I know, the uninterrupted musical "concert" at the end were the real reason for the movie, but surely the place for it should have been in the middle of the story, since the plot routinely came to a complete halt while someone sang a number anyway. This anomaly is extremely disorienting for anyone in a modern audience who expects a movie to be *over* when it's over.

The oddest darned thing I've seen in a loooong time.

Cornball Embarrassment with Great Title

[shepardjessica-1 · 2/10 · 16 November 2004]

I love exploitation flicks, but this is the bottom of the barrel. This sequel to LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS is trash of a new kind. No MUNSTERS or BEVERLY HILLBILLIES episode was ever this lame. Ferlin Husky is terrible and the guy who plays Jeepers is a complete idiot. Joi Lansing, although pretty with a great body, is a poor replacement for Mamie Van Doren in the first film, as Boots Malone.

I gave this a 2 instead of a 1 because of the title and John Carradine maintains his dignity (somehow). Basil Rathbone looks uncomfortable. Lon Chaney, Jr. looks to be in pain. Linda Ho is boring. Terrible music and creepy color. Best performance = Anatole the gorilla. LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS was bad enough to be fun..but this one - sorry folks.

I LIKE this movie . . .what about it?

[reptilicus · 19 April 2003]

It is easy to dismiss this movie as something that belongs on the bottom half of a double bill or late night television; but I happen to enjoy it. Lon Chaney, John Carradine and Basil Rathbone together again for the first time since THE BLACK SLEEP (1956) and on far more equal terms than they were in the earlier film. Okay so they leave no cliche untouched, from the Oriental "Dragon Lady" top spy to the gorilla in a cage but there are good moments in the film too. Just watch the scene where Lon Chaney takes the secret plans away from the traitorous government worker. Lon waits for just a heartbeat before turning back into the room, pulling his gun and declaring "If you'd betray your country you'd also betray us." and shoots the man dead. A great dramatic moment and not what you would expect from a musical comedy. Unfortunately the movie is very patronising of Southerners. Woody and Jeepers are your basic "scared of everything" backwoods boys. Boots (Joi Lansing) does not have a Southern drawl and at one point declares "Well I for one do not believe in ghosts." making her the most level headed one in the group. As for the music, there is plenty. All Boots has to do is say "Hey Woody, sing a song." for the plot to stop dead in its tracks so Ferlin Husky can warble another country tune. My biggest argument is that the movie goes on for another 20 minutes AFTER it should end! After the bad guys have been rounded up and the spies are in custody we get one whole REEL of country western singers performing their specialties at what is supposed to be a big Nashville Jamboree but looks like a high school auditorium. Granted this is probably the only chance many viewers will get to see old time singers like Molly Bee and Marcella Wright so just relax and enjoy the music.

Half an hour of stupid sitcom and nearly an hour of song. All in all, not bad.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 21 October 2021]

I must admit that I enjoyed this thoroughly like I would an episode of "Gilligan's Island" or a Don Knotts movie. Certainly there are elements of 1960s sitcoms and horror movie spoofs here, and what little plot there is ends up being improved by the presence of some fairly decent country and western music that may not be hits but are tuneful and sometimes campy. The three visitors to the haunted house are the two singers and their agent, of whom only Joi Lansing is worth mentioning. A buxom and intelligent platinum blonde, she's more than just a beautiful face, definitely not a Monroe or Mansfield rip-off. I've enjoyed her work on TV and in movies and find her completely charming and charismatic.

Spider woman spy ring lead Linda Ho is the Anna May Wong/Gale Sondergaard of the 1960's, beautiful but severe, yet unwilling to commit violence at first. Her three moronic associates are horror legends John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr and Basil Rathbone, yet Lansing's associates are hardly Holmes and Watson. There's a gorilla too (isn't there always in films like this, as well as in silly TV episodes?), and while the house inside does look haunted, the structure on the outside looks perfectly normal.

So this is a pleasant little diversion, not the catastrophe that I have led to be believed, but much of the comedy is juvenile and adults will find it excruciating at times. Poor Lansing ends up in an Iron maiden which is frightening (if you seen all those Edgar Allan Poe based movies), and of the three horror icons, Chaney is by far the worst acting-wise. The cemetery looks like it was borrowed from the Bela Lugosi / Ed Wood flop "Plan 9 from Outer Space", as the mausoleum that's the spy ring sneaks out of ends up in a graveyard filled with obviously fake tombstones. Too bad tour Johnson wasn't there to add some camp. There is an actual ghost as well and some neat effects utilized to scare the trespassers out, but it all looks cheap and the musical numbers outside of Lansing campy "Gowns" song are definitely something that you would have seen on "Hee Haw". I had intended to pass this on to other bad movie lovers, but after seeing it, I've decided to keep it.

The final teaming of John Carradine and Lon Chaney

[kevinolzak · 4/10 · 4 December 2014]

Of the 13 feature films in which John Carradine and Lon Chaney both appeared, 1967's "Hillbillys in a Haunted House" was not only the last, it was one of the few where they actually shared any scenes (shot under the working title "Ghost Party"). Joined in villainy by a game, 74 year old Basil Rathbone, the three actors offer the only real novelty to this tired rehash of old dark house clichés, dragged down by its abundance of country music. A sequel to the successful "Las Vegas Hillbillys" (note the spelling!), retaining stars Ferlin Husky and Don Bowman, but replacing the absent Jayne Mansfield with the equally photogenic Joi Lansing. En route to Nashville for a good old fashioned jamboree, the trio break down and have to spend the night in a house that's not really haunted; its actually the home base for spies trying to steal a top secret formula from a local rocket base. John Carradine alternately scowls and grimaces as Dr. Himmil, when he's not mercilessly teasing the gorilla Anatole belonging to Lon Chaney's Maximillian, who goes undercover by getting past an unsuspecting janitor (all he gets for his trouble is a formula combining nitroglycerin and antihistamine!). As Gregor, Basil Rathbone shares most of his scenes with Carradine, using phony ghosts and noises to try to scare off their dimwitted intruders, whom they mistake for agents from M.O.T.H.E.R. (Master Organization to Halt Enemy Resistance). A genuine ghost closes out the spy stuff at 67 minutes, leaving the final two reels open for yet more musical numbers. Chaney is clearly having a grand time, and Rathbone too, while poor Carradine has to remain sullen for the most part, fewer opportunities to be funny (he did enjoy stealing Anatole's banana!). As bad as the film's reputation is, consider how much worse it would have been without its heavyweight cast of screen villains.

Hillbilly humor. Hillbilly music.

[michaelRokeefe · 2/10 · 16 February 2009]

Country and western singers Woody Wetherby(Ferlin Husky)and Boots Malone(Joi Lansing)along with their manager Jeepers(Don Bowman)are on the road to Nashville and a star-studded jamboree. They decide to get some rest and avoid a storm by taking refuge in an old empty mansion. Before long they realize the mansion is haunted; what they don't know is that it is also the headquarters of a spy ring led by Madame Wong(Linda Ho). Her minions are played by Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine and Basil Rathbone in one of his last movies. The last twenty minutes or so is the Nashville jamboree featuring Sonny James, Merle Haggard, Molly Bee along with Woody and Boots. Even Jeepers does a comedy number. Sit back with a Moon Pie, Pork Rinds and a cold RC Cola and enjoy.

Hellraisin' Hillbilies!

[MooCowMo · 1/10 · 26 April 1999]

Perhaps one of the stupidest, un-funny, non-scary, most insipid and tedious moovies ever filmed, further cementing John Carradine's reputation as one of the worst actors ever. I cannot fathom just who this moovie is aimed for - hicks? People who make fun of hicks? Country/Western buffs? Horror fans??? Not even Bad Cinema buffs can take much of this warmed-over cow pie. This would have made a tasty treat for MST3K to bash, and it would no doubt rival Manos, the Hands of Fate for the most awful, ickiest, dreckiest piece o' crapola ever. MooCow says ferget you ever herd about it.

:=8P

It just can't get much worse than this

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 25 September 2008]

I recently learned about this movie when I saw a documentary entitled "The Fifty Worst Movies" and since I am a glutton for punishment, it sounded like it would be so bad it was funny. Well, after seeing this film, it is so bad that it's just plain awful. Seeing the movie to make fun of it isn't really possible--it just stinks so badly! Towards the end of their careers, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney and John Carradine would star in just about anything--and this film is the proof. It's a combination horror movie, Country Music marathon and spy movie!! Yep, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you! Talk about awful! The film begins with old-time Country singer Ferlin Husky and his friends driving to Nashville for a concert. You know it's going to be a long ride when one of the friends is named "Jeepers" and they start the film with one of the worst songs I can remember. The problem was that it was very obvious that they were just moving their lips and the song literally sounded like it was recorded in a tunnel. In fact, all the songs in the film (and there were MANY) sounded this way. Throughout the film, they'd break into song in the darnedest places and most ridiculously inappropriate moments. And, at the end, when there was no more plot, they just had about 6 songs in a row by a variety of long-forgotten Country stars. The net effect was a lot like watching an extended episode of "Hee-Haw" without all the corny jokes.

As far as the aging actors go, they were spies (naturally) who lived in a haunted house and had a killer gorilla (obviously a guy in a costume). None of it made a bit of sense and the film made BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA look like Shakespeare in comparison!! Dumb, pointless and absolutely painful if you hate old-time Country music. This is a chore to watch!

Hey y'all, it's jamboree time!

[Coventry · 2/10 · 2 April 2010]

How can you possibly resist a movie that opens with three yokels in a convertible car – complete with horns on the radiator and driving in front of obviously fake background locations – cheerfully singing stuff like "We're on our way … to Tennessee … to the jamboree"? And if you're a true horror fanatic, I simply know you won't be able to resist the sight of Lon Chaney, John Carradine, Basil Rathbone and a random guy in a hideous gorilla suit! Welcome to "Hillbillys in a Haunted House". Barely ten minutes and four more incredibly campy songs later, however, it's painfully and permanently made clear that this is not a horror movie at all, but merely just a musical intended to kick-start the career of a handful of country singing hicks. The sequences with the aforementioned horror legends are clearly shot in one day and clumsily edited into the story afterwards. After a while, the makers don't even bother anymore to put the songs into a certain context but just place on of the characters in front of a TV as he's watching another guy singing. This goes on for two integral songs in a row, by the way. That's roughly ten minutes of footage showing the picture in picture of a farmer crooning "somebody told my story in a song". Can you imagine they lured young and enthusiast horror buffs to the drive-in theaters with this sort of stuff? The trailers and posters presumably promised monsters & mayhem, but what they got was lame singing! I hope plenty of displeased moviegoers vandalized the cinemas, ha! And yet, the singing might be awful, but when the movie attempts to narrate a story it's even more horrendous. The horror guys, Rathbone and company, are conducting secret gorilla experiments in their secluded country mansion, but they're afraid of spies from the government agency called M.O.T.H.E.R. When the three singing yokels trespass the place to spend the night they're mistaken for spies, especially when all their tricks of scaring them away with carnival attraction gimmicks fail. The film benefices from highly intellectual dialogs ("I never won any bravery contests") and masterful special effects like plastic skeletons and bed sheets ironed in the shape of ghosts. Lead actress Joi Lansing's character is named Boots, but considering the impressive pair of blouse bunnies she sticks forward, they should have named her Boobs instead. In case you fear you will be too petrified by the realism of the special effects, I'll gladly ruin the ending for you: the bad guys are captured into a trap and our heroes at the jamboree in time to win the talent contest. Surprised? Oh, and as a bonus, there are four more integrally shown country concerts at the end for your cultural viewing pleasure.

Haunted Hooterville

[jaynashvil · 1/10 · 21 January 2002]

Imagine the excitement if the Grand Ole Opry tour bus broke down at the Shady Rest Hotel in Hooterville. Yep, country music song after song with nothing happening in between. It's not much of a movie, but rather a parade of singers across a one-set soundstage in Nashville. Even as a songfest its a sad project, sporting marginal camerawork and no imagination.

Just awful, but a rare chance to see beautiful Joi Lansing

[jackboot · 10/10 · 10 August 2006]

What can I say that hasn't already been said - they couldn't possibly make a movie that is worse than this.

For myself, it is nice to be able to see the stunning beauty Joi Lansing, and near the end of her life. Joi Lansing was one of those uncommonly beautiful women who was mainly hired for her looks. She deserved much better. She died too young - just over forty years old - and she didn't have the kind of career that will make her very memorable. Most of her movies were laden with cheesiness. Her appearances in legitimate works seem to have been to exploit her appearance.

I know this will skew the stats for this film, but I have to give it a 10 just because of the pleasure of seeing Joi.

So bad, it's good

[countrygent201 · 6/10 · 10 February 2011]

This is one of those movies that is so bad, it,s good. I believe the movie is considered to be one of the 50 worst movies ever made and I would't argue with that. But seriously if you are a fan of the old universal horror films as I am, you will find the movie interesting if only to see Lon Chaney jr, John Caradine and Basil Rathbone together in their latter years. And really it is a sad tribute to such a talentd and distingushed actor as Basil Rathbone that this horrid movie was his last. I still can't concive of such a wild combination of people together on a screen. Lon Chaney jr., Basil Rathbone, John Caradine along with Merle Haggard, Lefty Frazell and Sony James and a bombshell blonde in Nashville. That's about as crazy as a movie can get!

one of the worst

[johnc2141 · 1/10 · 7 June 2010]

After viewing the DVD the 50 worst movies of all time i was split on some of the selections and after seeing the clips for hillbilly's in a haunted house i wanted to see for myself,don't get me wrong i love b movies and trashy cinema but this one is really awful.a great cast misused in a horrible movie.lets see John Carridine,Lon Chaney JR,Basil Rathbone,the sexy Joi Lansing,Ferlin Husky,and even Merle Haggard.it looked good from seeing the clips but as a whole its a total bummer.with really awful songs and a well worn plot about 3 country singers on their way to a swinging jamboree in Nashville Tennessee,their car breaks down and have to stay at a seemingly abandoned mansion,that happens to be haunted.well its occupied by Rathbone,Chaney Jr,and Carridine and their boss played by Linda Ho.they are sort of espionage agents trying to steal plans for a top secret weapon.the three country singers(Ferlin Husky,Joi Lansing,and Don Bowman)get caught up in the silliness.remember the aip movie ghost in the invisible bikini?well that movie is gone with the wind compared to this.thats about an hour and a half ill never get back,what could've been a great idea falls apart in the first 3 minutes.but I'm glad i saw it for myself.

Poor Basil! Poor John! Poor Lon!

[BaronBl00d · 21 August 2000]

It is a sad sight indeed watching three veteran stars of the silver screen, and in particular the horror genre, be reduced to nothing more than scenery in an otherwise drab, dreary, dull film about a trio of country western singers holed up in a haunted house for the night. Ferlin Husky and Joi Lansing(as Boots Malone) and Don Hall inadvertantly stumble upon a haunted house being used by agents against an organization(MOTHER). When they are not running from being scared, each one 'entertains' us with a good ole country classic. All in all I counted no fewer than 14...yes count 'em....14 songs sung by the trio, a band of passers-by that just happen to sing as a group, two people on television sing for the Country Western Hour, and at the end of the film, when the story about the agents and the house has all been cleared up...at least six songs that go one after the other and the picture abruptly ends. This is not a horror picture. It is not even a picture with a real story. It is just an excuse to showcase what little talent the singers have. Now to be fair, Merle Haggard does a couple numbers, and a few of the songs aren't too terrible. But why make a movie like this....why star three of the genre greats and then give them little to do? Basil Rathbone certainly deserved better than this for his last(or next to last film). He is good in his small role and his scenes with John Carradine are fun to watch as they wade through the atrocious dialogue given to them. And what about poor Lon? It looks like he just woke up from a weekend bender. Again a shame for such a good actor! Despite these many...many shortcomings(and as I stated earlier there were at least 14)...Hillbillys in a Haunted House should be required viewing for serious genre fans just to have a few good real hearty laughs and to see those great men..even though not at their best...one last time. Other than that, the only other saving grace is easily Ms. Lansing and her stiffening blouse...a real treat for the eyes!

Woah...

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 11 March 2019]

Jean Yarbrough started in the silent era of film, first as a prop man, then rising through the ranks of RKO throughout the 1930's until his feature debut, 1938's Rebellious Daughters. Throughout the 1940's, he was behind some of the most famous horror movies, including The Devil Bat and She-Wolf of London. He also directed Abbott and Costello in Jack and the Beanstalk and Lost in Alaska.

He soon moved on to television, where he continued working with Abbott and Costello, as well as TV series like Gunsmoke, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian Petticoat Junction. This is his last theatrical movie, a strange mix of comedy, horror and musical numbers.

This is a sequel to 1966's The Las Vegas Hillbillys, which also featured Country Music Hall of Famer Ferlin Husky. You may not know him, but you may know his song "Wings of a Dove." That movie features Richard "Jaws" Kiel, Mamie Van Doren and Jayne Mansfield, so you know I'm already hunting down a copy.

Joi Lansing, who famously dies during the first tracking shot of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, takes over for Mamie and Jayne here, which is quite a feat. She's certainly got the looks to pull it off. She's also way taller than most of the men in this movie!

She and Ferlin Husky, along with their manager Jeepers (Don Bowman, a novelty country singer), are on their way to Nashville when their car (Webb Pierce's "silver dollar" convertible) breaks down and they end up staying in a haunted house that has Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine and Basil Rathbone (in his last role) working in the basement as mad scientists. Country stars Sonny James, Merle Haggard (Husky lived with Haggard's ex-wife until his death, by the way) and Molly Bee (who sang "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus") all show up as well.

There's also a gorilla, some James Bond spy agencies and evil Asian people. Basically, if you liked Hee Haw and Abbott and Costello meeting monsters, this is the movie for you. I mean, I enjoyed it.

I remember loving this when I was 12 years old

[mldardar · 4/10 · 25 July 2021]

My parents were fans of both the veteran horror/suspense greats, as well as Ferlin Huskey & Sonny James--my father played lead guitar in various local country & rockabilly bands, & loved even the worst country, including HeeHaw down to the repeats! I was around 12 & my brother was around 7 when they took us to see this, & I remember it being so funny! Just watched it last night after coming across it, & checking out the mostly justified negative comments. Woah! This makes The Three Stooges shorts look top-notch. It's actually closer to the Stooges movies without Curly or Shemp, (with Joe DeRitter & Curly Joe?) worth skipping. I'm pushing it at giving 4 stars for nostalgia.

In those days Lon Chaney, Jr. Looked like he was stuck in one phase of his changing to the Wolfman!

What's most curious about this poorly made attempt at horror/suspense comedy is the director's accomplishments pre & post Hillbillies. He directed some very good movies & TV series of all genres, including very funny My Favorite Martian & Petticoat Junction. Check-out his long list that started in 1938 with short subjects.

Unlike Plan 9 From Outer Space, whcih I get in moods to watch, I can't imagine wanting to see this again. Hillbillies will only appeal to country music fans. I found that I still can appreciate Ferlin Husky, Sonny James & the early days of Merle Haggard. I went through my detesting country years during his Outlaw days, but love Willie Nelson.

It's also one of the few movies you can see the gorgeous Joi Lansing, who seems cheated out of better roles in her short life. Linda Ho is the beautiful Chinese villainess in a role that would get a movie banned in Xi's childish ultra-sensitive China--no Chinese can be portrayed as a villain.

Anyway, I checked it out, but I had to skip that lame "we're on our way..." song sung by the main trio, as well as the last 20 minutes. I guess this was the later inspiration for HeeHaw. It might've worked as a special, or one of their continuously repeated skits.

Deathly Dull

[bensonmum2 · 1/10 · 2 October 2007]

Two country singers and their manager are on their way to Nashville when they decide to find a place to stop and spend the night. They find a deserted mansion that seems to nicely fit the bill. But this mansion may be haunted. And if it's not, it certainly is the hideout of a group of baddies up to no good. Will the country crooners make through the night to live their dreams in Music City?

What do you get when you mix a supposed haunted house, loads of country music, aging horror icons, and some ridiculous attempts at humor? In the case of Hillbillys in a Haunted House, you get this mess of a movie. To begin with, the "haunted house" is about as threatening looking as my neighbor's house. And by the time the spooks show up, who cares? I know I had lost interest long before any ghost made an appearance. And could the country music be any more dull? If I weren't already a non-fan of country music, I certainly would be after watching this movie. As I watched, I really felt sorry for Carradine, Chaney, and especially Rathbone. To have to appear in a disaster like this. If it weren't for Joi Lansing, I would have turned Hillbillys in a Haunted House off about halfway through. It's that bad!

Okie from Stinkosie!

[Hitchcoc · 1/10 · 31 March 2018]

I too feel sad that some really fine actors had to resort to something like this. Rathbone, Carradine, and Chaney are immersed in one of the most tiresome wastes of time ever. Then we have country stars of the time, Merle Haggard, and the forgettable Ferlin Huskie singing away. There is no order or sense to any of this. Chaney does steal a few scenes, but I can't imagine putting down some change to see this mess in 1967. Of course, there were triple features at drive-in theaters which probably provided a venue.

County and Horror is a Horror

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 9 February 2012]

A generation earlier country music stars the most prominent of them being Gene Autry got an outlet in films as B western singing cowboys. The B western having gone the way of the dodo bird for country stars to make it on the big screen they would have to find other outlets.

Hillbillies In A Haunted House was the second of two films that country singer Ferlin Husky made as the same character, country artist Woody Wetherby, the first being Las Vegas Hillbillies. This time he and girl friend Joi Lansing and brain dead roadie Don Bowman are on the way to Nashville and stop at what they think is a deserted mansion. What it is though is the headquarters of enemy agents after a rocket fuel formula. A woman runs this spy ring played by Linda Ho and her three henchmen are Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, and Lon Chaney, Jr. three players who have acquitted themselves well in the horror film genre.

All I can say is that mixing country music with Gothic horror must have stunk up the drive-ins from Saskatchewan to Nashville. I don't recall this film ever making it to New York City, but just as well it didn't. Rathbone, Carradine, and Chaney have the satisfied look of players whose paychecks have just cleared the bank and they're going through the motions. The spies have a pet gorilla around also for what is no discernible reason I can fathom other than to give Joi Lansing something to scream at.

Now for country music fans there are a few interludes of some of the top C&W artists of the day like Husky, Molly Bee, Merle Haggard, Sonny James, etc. In fact the last fifteen minutes of the film is just these singers on stage doing numbers with no real attempt to give them background. Fans of the sounds from Nashville did well here, but quite frankly on the whole the film sank like the Titanic.

What a comedown for Rathbone, Carradine, and Chaney.

One of cinema's biggest mistakes

[TheOneManBoxOffice · 1/10 · 11 August 2016]

If you've watched a whole plethora of episodes of the cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000, you may have heard of a certain film company that goes by the name of Woolner Pictures. They are the idiots responsible for those godawful Hercules movies that have popped up time and time again. Well, there was one other film that they were infamously known for, and that's the one I'm reviewing in this installment of Cinephile Confessions.

I originally heard of this movie from a video entitled The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made, which counted down...well...the worst movies ever made. Jean Yarbrough's 1967 *ahem* "horror comedy" Hillbillys in a Haunted House (P.S., it's spelled HILLBILLIES) was one of those movies, making the #35 spot. One day, I saw that this was coming on, of all places, my favorite movie channel, Turner Classic Movies, a channel that is often known for showing some of the best the silver screen had to offer. So being the glutton for punishment that I am, I proceeded to sit on my couch and watch the entire thing from start to finish.

So where do I begin with this more-than-worthy entry to Dumpsterpiece Theatre? Well, for starters, the movie is basically an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? stretched out to feature length and including pointless country music numbers, only instead of a large, cowardly great dane and his human companions, we have two musicians and their manager (with the personality of both Scooby and Shaggy combined) on their way to a Nashville Country Jamboree. Their car breaks down, and with a thunderstorm on the rise, their only shelter is a haunted mansion, which also happens to be occupied by a group of international spies, including Basil Rathbone, John Carradine, and Lon Chaney Jr., of all people. Oh, and well-known Country singers Sonny James and Merle Haggard are somewhere in this movie, too.

Watching this movie, I could instantly tell that this picture was made specifically for a drive-in theatre. Not to say that every film shown at one of those is this caliber of bad, but let me ask you this: would an indoor movie theatre show this alongside films like Bonnie and Clyde or The Graduate, which were also released in '67? Nah, I wouldn't think so either. Not only is the movie not funny or scary within the slightest, and with songs that would make Billy Ray Cyrus sound like Garth Brooks, but even though this movie is only 88 minutes long, it felt like two hours. But wait, here's the kicker: when the main story ends and the spies are caught, the movie isn't even close to being done yet. You get to sit through the jamboree the main characters have been singing about when the film began, with about five or six songs sung back to back as if this was really a concert flick. By the time I got to this point, I was like Tom Servo at the end of the Wild World of Batwoman episode of MST3K, shouting "END! EEEEEENNNNNDDD!!!" at the top of my lungs before they gave out.

To conclude, no one was lying. This was bad. Probably the worst movie I've seen thus far. It's worse than Reptilicus, worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate, and almost as irritating as The Castle of Fu Manchu. If you REALLY want to see this poor excuse of a movie, it can be seen on many a bargain bin DVD that's most likely worth a pittance. Otherwise, avoid it as if it was radioactive waste, sign and all.

Scooby-Doo Where Were You?

[BigSkyMax · 1/10 · 18 June 2016]

OMG, this is awful, just awful. You want it to be campy awful, but that's too much work. It's just plain awful. Bad sets, bad acting, bad directing, bad script.

The saddest part of this dreck is the complete waste of the beautiful Joi Lansing, who never ever appears in a swimsuit or a negligee or even the clingy tattered dress they paint on her on the movie poster. C'mon, movie gorillas are grabby and horny bodice-rippers going back to King Kong. But this ape is too impotent to monkey around - matching everything else in this mess. Lansing should have been one of the screen's great sex symbols, but this snore was no help.

The rest of the show is just unwatchable Z-movie hack work. Basil Rathbone and John Carradine stand around jawing in the suits they were probably buried in. That's about as scary as it gets. Scooby Doo and Shaggy would have turned down the story as too far-fetched.

Merle Haggard sings a great song, Sonny James does an okay one. The other singers, popping up mostly on the tacked-on end, had minor recording careers, but you'll need to Google them to find out why.

only for the merle haggard fans

[ksf-2 · 1/10 · 23 July 2019]

Kind of funny... the title on Turner Classics is "Hillbillies in a Haunted House", but the VCR cover they show is "Hillbillys in a Haunted House". features the usual horror cast of Lon Chaney, Basil Rathbone, John Carradine. Songs by Merle Haggard, and band. One of the twelve film roles Haggard ever did. they are driving around in a car, but clearly, from the sound, they are in a small room with SO MUCH echo it hurts. and Don Bowman didn't do many films, but here he is as the comical sidekick "Jeepers". The plot actually would have been so much better without the songs killing off the story line. Delicious co-star Joi Lansing was married four times ( imdb only shows three husbands.) but sadly, she died SO young at age 43. and when she sings, even more echo. the last film for Linda Ho. skip this one. it seems to highlight the (very loud) songs by Haggard, but not so much story.... a haunted house ? really? just not a good film. can't recommend this one, unless you're a real Merle Haggard fan. Directed by Jean Yarbrough; he had done TONS of stuff with Abbott and Costello.

Ferlin Husky and Lon Chaney, Jr. do NOT sing a duet

[bwaynef · 8 September 1999]

Frankenstein met the Wolfman, and they both met Abbott and Costello, so why shouldn't country music greats Ferlin Husky and Merle Haggard meet Basil Rathbone and Lon Chaney, Jr? No reason a'tall. I was hoping for a real hoedown here, even though I'm not sure what a hoedown is. Well, actually, a hoedown seems to be a "square dance." At least that's what the Merriam Webster link on my toolbar came up with, in which case a hoedown isn't what I was hoping for, after all. A Ferlin Husky-Lon Chaney, Jr. duet on a country classic, perhaps "Your Cheatin' Heart," or something else from the pen of Hank Williams, would have been nice, but, alas, it was not to be. As a result, "Hillbillies in a Haunted House" fails to live up to its considerable potential. I suppose that for Basil Rathbone, who would die in the year of this film's release, appearing in this movie is no worse than doing an infomercial for a Helsinki baldness cure, which is what aged, down on their luck actors seem to do these days, although it would have been nice to see the screen's greatest Sherlock Holmes go out with more style than is evident here.

Typical haunted house comedy...almost...

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 4 July 2020]

The blueprint of this film is one used quite often during the time this film was made. A haunted house that is not really haunted with someone who is really nervous reacts. In the end, they discover the place was not really haunted and arrest those involved in the haunted house as they usually do this as a ruse to conceal some dubious undertakings and they figure no one will come explore a haunted house. Which of course is not really true as if you say a place is haunted it draws people in like an open window to a fly! Don Knotts would appear in an episode of Andy Griffith that did this and he was in a movie that did this, suffice to say this movie follows the blueprint except they would have been better off casting Don Knotts as he is genuinely funny in a role like that and the guy who is playing the overly nervous man Peepers is not funny at all.

The story has a couple of singers heading to Nashville to perform at a jamboree when they pull up right in the middle of a totally random shootout. This of course makes the nervous guy super nervous, but one can hardly find humor in this as the police started shooting their gun right beside the guy's head. Pretty sure that is a legitimate reason for a guy to get a little nervous. Well for some reason, they go to a town that is all but deserted and a gas station attendant points them towards an abandoned house that is for sale so they can rest up...wait, what? You cannot just bust into a house because there is no one in it! Well there is someone in it, spies that are looking to get some sort of formula and are using the house as their base of operations and of course they make the house haunted to keep people away until our fave trio comes a knocking and then a band comes in and sings about a cat before getting scared away!

The premise is standard with one exception. This film gets a bit violent for something that is supposed to be a lighthearted comedy as a man is killed for a formula, John Caradine is mauled by a monkey and then the monkey is shot a couple of times and so in that regard it does differ from the blueprint. Of course, it also has an actual ghost within it too, but then the Ghost and Mr. Chicken hinted at the end that the place was really haunted also. You get John Caradine, Lon Chaney, but the rest of the horror quartet is Linda Ho and Basil Rathborne neither of whom are really known for their horror roles. At times the movie just pans to them and at the beginning it is a bit hard to figure out their involvement, but you just know that the place is not haunted and any haunting is their doing.

So, not a very good film, but it has its moments as it does try to differentiate itself a bit from the usual haunted premise. I did not really see the main trio as being very hillbilly like at all though, only a bit country and the girl was not even a bit country, but she was really attractive. Though they were trying to be different, I also have the complaint that they went a bit too overly complicated with the villains caper. The film is just a very strange mixture of tones as it goes from Lon lightheartedly trying to sneak a banana to his monkey to him gunning down a person in cold blood...