The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie Review

"Jayne Swings! Ma Sings! In the wildest romp since Pa blew the still!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown January 2, 2025

Light on story (very light) and heavy on musical performances, The Las Vegas Hillbillys is a concert film in search of a point. It strings together a passable plot, at least in theory, but it's the run-of-the-mill toss-together-a-live-concert misadventuring turned success of a hundred other movies. Worse, its characters are barely sketches, having fun with the country bumpkins invading Vegas premise but lacking the heart, humor and hilarity of other country-meets-city farces. The music is good -- it needs to be with so little else propping things up -- but that's a far cry from something that deserves to be unearthed after sixty years. Who it's for, who will enjoy it, who will buy it is beyond me (the whole thing was a terribly painful watch in my home theater), but that's the beauty of film. One man's treasure is another man's biscuits n' gravy.

When he inherits a casino in Las Vegas, Woody (Ferlin Husky), a stage-struck country boy, leaves his Tennessee home and sets out for the city. En route he befriends a beautiful woman named Tawny (Jayne Mansfield) by pushing her disabled automobile to a garage. Arriving in Vegas with his buddy, Jeepers (Don Bowman), he discovers that his casino is a rebuilt barn badly in need of repairs. The former bartender and singer, Boots Malone (Mamie Van Doren), offer to help put the place back in shape, while Woody's Aunt Clementine (Billie Bird) shows up with her life savings. Together they plan a country music jamboree, as Tawny agrees to handle the gambling casino. The show promises to be a huge success and the former country boy might just get to become the big-time entrepreneur he dreams of being. And aw shucks, wouldn't you know it? He and Boots start to catch feelings for one another too. The film also features a slew of real musical talent, including Bill Anderson, Wilma Burgess, Roy Drusky, Sonny James, the Duke of Paducah, Del Reeves, Connie Smith, Jr. Carolina Cloggers and The Jordanaires.

The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Most of Las Vegas Hillbillys' 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer actually looks great. There are just a few too many shots and scenes that are the victim of subpar film elements, off-kilter color grading or other issues. First, what works. In general, colors are bright and lively, with vivid primaries, rich black levels, solid contrast and finely saturated skin tones. Yes, hues are skewed too often and a faint blue tint sometimes spoils the otherwise potent palette, but by and large, the film's cinematography fares well. Green screen shots are also an mis-colored eyesore, as are a handful of strangely dark, humorless shots that appear as if they were filmed ten minutes after sunset. Detail is surprisingly exacting, with crisp edges, fine textures and grain, and overall clarity delivers. Softness invades here and there, which VCI seems to address with too much filtering and sharpening. Even so, the results aren't offensively bad, nor troubling enough to register serious complaints. Blocking and banding are kept to a minimum, and print specks and scratches are virtually MIA.

Not to ramble on, but if you'll grant me a moment, I want to share a thought that's been brewing in my mind for some time: VCI and other smaller labels have received quite a bit of criticism in the forums of our site and others. Stop, though, for a moment and consider the challenge. Not only are these labels releasing films that no other distributor will pay for or touch, they're doing so in the face of obstacles as great as extremely damaged film elements and as frustrating as having tools far more limited than those utilized by the likes of Sony or Criterion. Moreover, with smaller staff, less experience and budgets that prevent labels from attracting high-end talent, it becomes more and more difficult to deliver a quality product. Don't misunderstand, I'm a reviewer, so I certainly encourage you to call things as you see them. A bad transfer or remaster is just that. Bad. But bear in mind that that doesn't always amount to a failure of talent, a lack of desire or carelessness at the helm. More often than not, these labels do the absolute best they can with what they have and nothing more. Perhaps more leeway and understanding would do our community some good.

The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Las Vegas Hillbillys features a solid uncompressed LPCM 2.0 audio track. It's nothing to write home about, but it's not bad either. Voices are clear, dialogue is intelligible, prioritization is spot on, and there's only a minimal amount of air hiss and noise floor mucking about. Effects are pretty thin and tinny, as is common of the era, but the music sounds quite good, with nice dynamics, especially considering the lack of LFE output. Will anyone be talking about the mix an hour after the credits roll? No chance. But for what the film's original sound design amounts to, the uncompressed track does its job well.

The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras really. Just a theatrical trailer and a Blu-ray trailer for sister-feature film, Hillbillys in a Haunted House.

The Las Vegas Hillbillys Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Las Vegas Hillbillys is such a groan-inducing, cringeworthy experience that it's a wonder anyone would release it, much less buy it. But someone, somewhere out there must love this stuff cause, well, here it is. The film is grating and almost unwatchable, save its musical performances, but the Blu-ray is fairly decent thanks to a solid AV presentation. There aren't any extras to explain the film's resurrection, so the mystery goes on, but there are a few ways to do worse than this cheesy, near-plotless concert film masquerading as a fish-out-of-water comedy.