Nashville Girl

I was expecting just a straight exploitation movie. And while there are moments that feel that way this picture is so much more. The performances are all top notch here with an especially great performance by Glenn Corbett. This movie has a good story about a girl trying to make it in the country music industry. It's sad to think that Nashville is as bad as this movie portrays but the director did spend an extensive time there researching for this movie. There is also a lot of great country music in this movie if you are a fan of the genre. There are some really unpleasant moments and themes but if your down for the ride a great story with great performances. Highly recommend it.

This movie teams up two underrated talents from the 1970's. The first is director Gus Trikonis (the former Mr. Goldie Hawn) who directed big-screen exploitation flicks like "Swinging Barmaids" and "The Student Body", underrated horror fare like "The Evil", and superior made-for-TV movies like "The Darker Side of Terror". The second is actress Monica Gayle, a breath-taking natural beauty who spent a good portion of all her movies modeling her luscious birthday suit, and as a result perhaps was never really given her due as an actress. With the possible exception of "Strawberries Need Rain", this is her best film.

Gayle plays "Jamie", a sixteen-year-old runaway, who comes to Nashville to try to make it as a songwriter. Her character is not unlike the actress herself in that while she is actually genuinely talented, none of the loutish male agents and producers she interviews with seem to notice because they are all too busy trying to dip their wicks in her. One washed-up country music celebrity finally does take advantage of her MUSICAL talents, but he too eventually becomes possessed by her irresistible, nubile charms and for awhile this kind of turns into a low-budget, country-music version of "A Star is Born".

This is not exactly a feminist film. "Jamie" is forcibly raped twice, taken advantage of my every man she meets, and at one point even ends up in a juvenile detention center after she's caught in a massage parlor bust (while a client is giving HER a massage). And, of course, in the camp she falls prey to the stereotypical lesbian guard. Despite all the exploitative elements though, Trikonis crafts a fairly realistic movie that does really show the seedy side of Nashville. It's not "Coal Miner's Daughter", but it's not exactly trying to be either. It's also not Robert Altman's "Nashville", but I found it a lot more fun to watch. And I actually thought it was quite a bit BETTER than the 70's version of "A Star Is Born" (with the insufferable Barbra Streisand). The country music songs are quite good (although unlike Sissy Spacek, Karen Black, and a lot of the actresses in the aforementioned movies, Gayle's singing was quite obviously dubbed). I hadn't heard a lot of the songs before, but there is a good cover of the Bob Will's classic "Faded love". I'd definitely recommend this one.

New World's "Nashville Girl" begins with a hayseed young miss skinny-dipping in the lake and never strays from this path. In the lead, honey-mellowed Monica Gayle is an easy screen presence as a determined, talented country music songwriter with aspirations to work in Nashville, but the movie isn't interested in being a rags-to-riches story. Jailbait Gayle is continually ogled, pawed at, stripped and molested, while most of the men on her journey (and one lesbian, natch) are horny old-timers with one thing on their minds. Director Gus Trikonis and writer Peer J. Oppenheimer aren't smut peddlers, exactly--there's an outline of a story--and Oppenheimer provides salty hard luck travails for our heroine. Still, it's a jaded B-movie with one foot in the gutter: not entirely sleazy, but not at all inspiring. *1/2 from ****

This is a good show about a hopeful, musically-inclined girl whose gifted talents are underestimated in the competitive entertainment world. The main actress Monica Gayle plays a country music fan who is attractive, intelligent, although somewhat naive, and intent on becoming a country music star herself. It seems almost to have an underlying theme of irony caused by cruelty toward the character played by Monica Gayle with its amount of hidden sex exploitation, but I respected and loved that she never feels demoralized all through the movie in her role and she stays persistently determined. The movie never gave the impression in my opinion of being stuck with a commonplace, routine kind of plot but instead it inspired viewers by Jamie's adventures. This film contains some fine country music made for the show. The DVD of this film has a clearly defined quality that is easy on the eyes and a smooth flowing story which kept me rooting for the girl known as Jamie Barker and on the edge of my seat all the way to the end of the film. The movie is a worthy to watch show even just to witness actress Monica Gayle's high-spirited acting and beauty in the movie. Truthfully though, I didn't understand the ending. Fans of country music and mature audiences can really stay tuned to this fine performance!!

Well paced film, interesting slice of the 70s with a nice gritty film. Pretty much every man in this film, and there are a good number, assaults the main character for sex (some succeed, some don't). They act with impunity and a certain air of entitlement. Exaggerated for the film, but probably not by much.