HEROES OF THE HEART aka PARADISE PARK

A group of people in West Virginia, who were flooded out of their homes, were each given a mobile home by the government. This group all reside in a trailer park called Paradise Park, the original name of this movie, which has been re-titled Heroes Of The Heart (HOTH). One morning an elderly woman awakes and tells the other residents that she had a vision and if they will all meet that evening, God will arrive and grant them each a wish. Whether her vision is a result of dementia or just a desire to have all the residents gather together is up to the viewer. The movie takes place for the most part in one day as we see the residents living their everyday lives and later gathering for a picnic to await God. Along the way, several of the residents have a fantasy sequence about what they wish their life was really like. The movie concludes with a short coda on how things exist the next day at the trailer park.


The acting in HOTH varied from professional to amateurish with one of the most amateurish being the lead actor, Larry Groce (best known for his song, "Junk Food Junkie" and as host of NPR's Mountain Stage). Larry Groce is a good musician and a great host, but acting is definitely not for him. I'm assuming he must have decided the same, since as far as I can tell, this is the only movie that he attempted.


I was torn about Webb Wilder's performance, since it is almost over the top. His character, Cowboy, has brain damage as the result of a car wreck. His brain damage has resulted in him not only thinking that he receives alien transmissions, but also that he is a REAL cowboy. His fantasy sequence shows him in a shootout with another cowboy played by Razzy Bailey. I could never decide if Webb was playing his character too broad OR if that was just the way his part was written.


Johnny Paycheck doesn't have a large part, he's just one of the people that happens to live at the trailer park. He does have a few lines and his performance was good enough that I really think that if I didn't know who he was, I would have just thought he was another actor in the cast. Which brings us to the best actor/musician in HOTH, Porter Wagoner, who plays the Governor of West Virginia. Maybe it's because Porter sang so many story songs and songs with recitations that allows him to deliver such a a great performance. Whatever the case, he gives a speech to the residents of the trailer park that is one-hundred per cent believable.


The only other musician that I spotted in the cast was T. Graham Brown. As Larry Groce is sitting in a bar tending to his broken heart, we see T. Graham, in a non-speaking part, hanging out by the pool table (his role is listed as Pool Player) while his song "This Wanting You" plays in the background.


Even though the fantasy sequences got old after a while and a few times the movie attempted to deliver some heavy-handed messages, by the end of the movie I had really been drawn into these lives of the characters at Paradise Park and cared about what happened to them. HOTH is classified as drama, but it's actually very humorous throughout. My personal opinion is that they made a mistake changing the aptly titled Paradise Park to Heroes Of The Heart.

I couldn't find a trailer for the movie, but below is Larry Groce singing "Junk Food Junkie" on Mountain Stage.

ROAD TO NASHVILLE

Similar in structure to Second Fiddle To A String Guitar, Road To Nashville (RTN) is a collection of musical performances tied together with a simple plot. Doodles Weaver playing a character named Feetlebaum (a nod to his character Professor Feetlebaum from his stint in The Spike Jones Band) is sent to Nashville to sign acts for a country music movie his boss is going to produce. Doodles' boss also tells him to add Colonel to his name, because he'll get more respect down South.

Connie Smith meets Doodles at the airport at the request of Marty Robbins (also the associate producer of the movie). Connie takes Doodles to the studio to meet Marty, who it seems is always too busy singing or driving his race car to stop long enough to sign a contract. In the meantime, Connie tours Doodles around the studio meeting other country acts. This of course, sets up the musical performances.

RTN has performances by The Stonemans, Waylon Jennings, Don Winters, Bobby Sykes, comedy act Quinine Gumstump and Buck, Kitty Wells, Johnny Wright, Bill Phillips, Faron Young, Lefty Frizzell, Connie Smith, Marty Robbins, Margie Singleton, Bill Anderson, Norma Jean, Dottie West, Webb Pierce, The Stonemans, Hank Snow, The Osbourne Brothers, Porter Wagoner, The Carter Family and Johnny Cash. Surprisingly, most of the performances in RTN appear to be sung live instead of lip synched. This makes me surmise that the movie actually used a real Nashville studio for filming.

There are two oddities in the movie: Instead of Doodles, Ralph Emery starts introducing acts in the last part of the movie. It doesn't appear Ralph's part was taped at the same time as some of the acts he introduces. Ralph, who was a top Nashville DJ, was probably added to get some free publicity for the movie when it was released, the same as the DJs in Jamboree. Speaking of no reason to be in the movie...Doodles' boss is talking to him on the phone and a secretary brings him coffee. All I could think was "somebody was promised a part in the movie". She even made the lobby card, as you can see in the bottom left picture in the photo above.

My only problem with the movie is the copy that I saw was in "pan and scan". While this wasn't a problem for the solo singers, it caused problems with the group acts. For example, when The Stonemans appear Pop is sitting in a chair to the side of the group and he is cut almost completely out of the picture due to the pan and scan (see video below).

As with any of these music based movies, you will have your own favorites when viewing. Everybody was good in RTN, but I particularly liked The Stonemans (especially Donna giving the mandolin a hell of a workout), Porter Wagoner with Norma Jean, seeing Waylon Jennings pre-outlaw, and a very gaunt Johnny Cash singing "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord"

I couldn't find a trailer for Road To Nashville, but below is a video of one of The Stonemans performance from the movie. There are some more videos of different artists from the movie, if interested just search the movie title on youtube.