LADY GREY

Well, at least now I know what Hell will be like:
listening to Grey Jackson (Ginger Alden) sing (???) the country (???) songs from the soundtrack of Lady Grey. Ginger Alden's main claim to fame is that she was Elvis' fiancé at the time of his death. There are several times during Lady Grey, that from a certain angle, I could see a slight resemblance to Priscilla (pre plastic surgery, of course) and I guess that might have been what attracted Elvis to her. One thing for certain, it COULDN'T have been her singing voice!!

I purchased this movie for one reason, it was listed as David Allan Coe's second acting appearance, and since I'm a big DAC fan, I wanted to check it out. I had already seen DAC in his acting debut: Buckstone County Prison. David Allan Coe (DAC) wasn't great in that movie, but he wasn't terrible either. He's much better in Lady Grey and a lot of that has to do with a role more suited for him: a country music star named Black Jack Donovan.

As the opening credits were rolling, I got another surprise when I saw that Lady Grey was produced by Earl Owensby. One of the first scenes takes place in the same kitchen that was in the whorehouse in Buckstone County Prison and just a little bit later in the movie Lady is singing (a very bad acoustic performance) outside on a large rock outcropping that is the same one that David Allan Coe led the escaped prisoners around in the aforementioned movie. Lady Grey was obviously shot at Earl's studio in Shelby, NC with a few additional scenes around Charlotte NC.


Lady Grey Jackson is a local celebrity singer. She gets signed to a band that has recently played at the local fair and goes on tour with them. One of the band members is cold to her for no apparent reason. The manager eventually winds up raping (?) Lady, I put that question mark there, because he backhands her once, she falls to the bed and the next thing we know it's morning and she's naked under the sheets as the manager is leaving and telling her she wasn't any good anyway. Lady returns home, but the band member that was previously cold to her seeks her out and asks her to join the new band he is playing in - The Black Jack Donovan Band. She gets signed to Black Jack's band as a writer and backup singer. Eventually Black Jack decides she's good enough to go out on her own and releases her from her contract and she becomes a star. Her old manager now has control over her little sister, the reason is REALLY unclear why, the film hints that he's either her pimp, drug supplier, lover....heck, maybe he's some type of hypnotist! Anyway he has a hold on Lady's sister and in order to protect her, Lady let's him manage her again. Of course he's just as big an ass with Lady as he ever was; but he eventually, as we say here in The South, gets his "just desserts". The last scene in the movie is Lady getting her life back on track at a benefit concert. We see Alabama opening for her and are then treated to our final (Thank Goodness!) song by Ginger Alden.


Now that I have the plot out of the way, I can go on to all things David Allan Coe (DAC), the reason I watched Lady Grey and the ONLY reason I would recommend watching Lady Grey to anyone. We finally meet up with DAC in his office about 40 minutes into the movie, where we see him on the phone inviting Willie and Leon to come to his BBQ. After he gets off the phone, DAC asks Lady, who does she sound like: Tammy or Loretta (believe me, she doesn't sound even remotely close to either one of those ladies or for that fact to anyone with talent!). DAC decides to hire her on as a writer and backup singer for his band. I will note that DAC does the same bad fake laugh in this scene that he did in Buckstone....or maybe this is just his real laugh!


We find that DAC has a BBQ on a weekly basis and to stay on his good side, you are expected to always attend. At the first BBQ, DAC introduces Lady and she sings (?) another terrible song. We also see DAC sit down with a couple of lookalikes for Willie Nelson and Leon Russell.....well, the Willie actor looks a little bit like Willie Nelson, BUT the Leon Russell actor doesn't even come close to being a good lookalike!


We finally get the first decent song in the movie, when we see DAC singing at a concert, of course this is marred, when next up is his duet with Lady on still another terrible song. I couldn't find anything about who wrote these terrible numbers....they don't sound country....they don't sound pop or folk or any recognizable genre....unless BAD is a genre.


DAC is a success with the songs that Lady has written for him, but she's disgruntled because he's getting all of the credit. DAC puts her in her place by telling Lady how things really are in life and that he will block her from working with anyone else since she has a contract with him. This is a pretty decent scene, since it appears to be DAC basically telling how hard the music business is when you're first getting started. Actually, the only weak scene that DAC has, and it's not that bad, is his last one in the movie, where he is supposed to be outraged over Lady not being able to keep her career on track.


Lady Grey tried to use some props to make things seem realistic. For example: They used the cover of DAC's Greatest Hits LP, but taped over "David Allan Coe" with "Black Jack" and they made the letters in "Black Jack" much larger than "Greatest Hits" - honestly it looked liked someone had their grade school student do the design. There was a tour bus (I assume DAC's) with a sign on the side that was made too short to cover the original sign underneath. They did do a good job with some fake country music magazine covers. My favorite realistic touch was at a second BBQ, where we see someone with their back to the camera wearing a jacket that says "The David Allan Coe Band"!!!

I couldn't find a trailer for the movie, but I did find the below clip from Lady Grey on youtube (It's gets screwed up towards the last)

BUCKSTONE COUNTY PRISON aka SEABO

This is a great drive-in movie. If it was sandwiched between "Thunder Road" and "2000 Maniacs (1964)" and you had a couple of bottles of Hi-Fi Peach Wine and some Slim Jims, you would have one more great evening of entertainment. Unfortunately, watching it on TV in your own house with no cheap alcoholic beverages or greasy meat snacks, it would be a huge stretch to call Buckstone County Prison great entertainment.

One of the tag lines for Buckstone County Prison (originally released as Seabo) was "First there was Cool Hand Luke, then Billy Jack, but there has never been anyone like Seabo. " Well, Seabo is a half-breed like Billy Jack and he does go to a chain gang prison like Cool Hand Luke, but that's pretty much where any similarities to those two movies end. And in one very odd part of dialogue in the movie he also claims to be part Mexican!

This movie may or may not be available directly from Earl Owensby Studios. The web page appears not to have been updated since 1998 and they're offering all of their movies in VHS format, which seems a little outdated for 2010. Otherwise, you can sometimes find this title on some "collectors' lists".


I wanted a copy of Buckstone County Prison ( because IMDB showed it as the first movie David Allan Coe (DAC) was in and the poster touted DAC as one of the two co-stars. DAC probably has less than 15 minutes screen time in Buckstone, although his role is integral to the plot. We first get a brief appearance by DAC, playing a character named Reb Stock, when Seabo, who is a bounty hunter, has tracked down a couple of escaped convicts. Seabo has killed one, but is going to take the other convict in alive. However, the farmer, whose daughter was about to get raped by the dead convict (well he was alive at the time), shoots the other convict in the back. Seabo takes the rap for this so the farmer won't have to go to jail, but DAC, also a bounty hunter, spreads the word that Seabo is the one who shot the convict in the back.


DAC's second scene is much better than his first appearance in the movie, even taking into account his terrible fake laugh during this scene. Seabo has left town because of all of the harassment he is getting for being a half-breed and a communist (this has something to do with him getting kicked out of the Marines, which won't be revealed until much later in the movie). Seabo goes to the local whorehouse to get some breakfast (I mean, what else would you go to a whorehouse for?), but DAC is also there and they have a brief confrontation. Seabo decides to leave but is confronted by a "Barney Fife" type deputy who has come to arrest him for some trouble Seabo caused in town. Seabo refuses to go with the deputy and DAC sneaks up behind Seabo and knocks him in the back of the head. The deputy is now able to arrest Seabo, who is sent to trial and sentenced to the chain gang at Buckstone County Prison.

Buckstone's plot really bogs down at this point in the film: The Warden (Don "Red" Barry) blames his son's death on Seabo; the other prisoners don't like the trouble Seabo brings to the camp; of course, there's one prisoner who becomes Seabo's friend and looks out for him. All this was pretty much your standard chain gang prison plot and I was glad when the movie finally moved past this point.

Buckstone picks up the pace when the same night that the whores come to service the prisoners (WHAT KIND OF CHAIN GANG IS THIS!!!) , a few of the "Yankee" prisoners escape.... Guess Yankees ain't up for sex! It seems these prisoners killed some bank tellers during a robbery (and they just got a chain gang sentence!!!) and they're mighty dangerous. They're headed across the mountain or "high country" as it's called in the movie and only two men know that area...Reb Stock (DAC) and Seabo. Since Seabo is in prison, it can only be Reb Stock (who is now decked out in what looks like DAC's own "outlaw country" regalia).


Only one thing to do (at least as far as the plot of this movie is concerned), call the governor and make a deal. If Seabo will capture the men and bring them back alive, then he'll be pardoned. Seabo agrees if he can take his prisoner buddy, plus beat the snot out of one of the guards that has been his nemesis. Reluctantly, Seabo's wishes are granted and he sets out to track down the prisoners and bring them back. Setting the stage for a final showdown between Seabo and DAC....guess who wins....well this movie ain't called Reb Stock!

There's a little bit more to the movie after DAC gets killed, but I won't delve into the plot any further, except to say, that Seabo has already killed one of the escaped prisoners, so it looks like the pardon deal would be off, making the ending inconsistent. Since the ending involves a lot of loud guns being shot, I think we weren't supposed to notice that fact.


Earl Owensby played Seabo (HEY! It's his studio, he can be the star if the wants to) delivering most of his lines through clenched teeth. The only decent actor in the cast was Don "Red" Barry of Red Ryder fame (that's him above right). I also got a kick out of seeing the old B- movie cowboy star, Sunset Carson as The Sheriff (above left). It appeared Sunset was wearing his own clothes throughout the movie, since they all looked like they were custom made for him.

Was it worth watching this whole movie for the three DAC scenes. I would say barely. DAC wasn't bad... I mean I've seen worse actors....and a lot of them were in THIS MOVIE! Since most of the drive-ins are now closed, the best niche this movie could fulfill would be as a drinking game. Every time someone said the name "Seabo", you would have to take a shot. Believe me, you would be laying on the floor way before you got to the halfway point of this movie.