A Time To Sing is Hank Williams, Jr.'s only starring film role. In this movie he plays the nephew of Ed Begley, who owns a small tobacco farm. Although Hank is a talented singer/songwriter, his uncle is dead set against Hank having anything to do with the music business. The reason why is revealed later in the movie. Through a series of convoluted plot twists, most involving Shelley Fabares, Hank winds up becoming a big star.
As far as music in the movie goes, Hank Jr. sings a handful of songs (1/2 of which he wrote), one with Clara Ward and the rest solo, plus Shelley Fabares sings one number. In several scenes, Hank Jr. is backed up by his real-life band, The Cheatin' Hearts. Hank Jr.'s country songs in A Time To Sing fare much better than the pop/folk style songs he sings. Those songs just didn't fit with Hank Jr.'s voice/personality.
A Time To Sing is a very poorly made movie with a badly written plot and lots of weak acting. And the weak acting doesn't just come from Hank Jr., I mean he's a singer and his acting reflects that fact, but there's no excuse for his co-stars. Only Donald Woods as Shelley's father, Clara Ward as herself, and Charles Robinson in the hilarious role of "hipster" agent Shifty Barker (think Maynard G. Krebs with a work ethic) show any talent in the acting department and that includes veteran actor, Ed Begley. I can only recommend this film for BIG fans of Hank Jr. (casual fans, don't waste your time).
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This movie reminds me of the standard Elvis movie of the 1960s. This MGM film plays out like the Hal Wallis-produced Elvis movies. You have the star who is a singer from humble beginnings that goes on to achieve some success, after some romantic complications along the way, then has some conflict before the inevitable happy ending.
ReplyDeleteWhile watching this, I couldn't help thinking this was a rejected Elvis script that was tailored to fit Hank.
I agree that Hank's songs are the best thing in the movie and probably the only reason to watch it.