My review was written in July 1986 after watching the film on New World video cassette.
"Uphill All the Way" is a flop Western self-tailored to expose the nonmusical talents of singers Roy Clark and Mel Tillis. Pic was made in Texas in 1984 during the brief resurgence in Western production (New World video cassette opens with a trailer for "Lust in the Dust", another Western dud made at that time) and received a few theatrical playdates in the South and Southwest commencing in January 1986.
Set in the early 1900s, picture has Clark and Tillis as incompetent conmen, so stupid they go into a bank seeking a loan but brandishing a shotgun, causing them to be mistaken for bank robbers. Stealing a car, they are the subject of a manhunt (which takes up the rest of the picture) led, reluctantly, by local sheriff Burl Ives. Joining the chase later is an army captain played by Glen Campbell (a kindred singer whose own Western screen career remained stillborn after "True Grit").
Writer-director Frank Q. Dobbs (no relation to Bogie's Fred C. Dobbs) seems to be aiming here for a bawdy comedy similar to Sam Peckinpah's "The Ballad of Cable Hogue", but film is tame, unfunny and meaningless. The would-be Laurel & Hardy team has slapstick misadventures that amount to mere filler and supporting cast is wasted.
Of the stars, Clark makes the best screen impression, delivering witless lines as if they meant something, while Tillis is a blank, downplaying his stuttering routine. Elaine Joyce is fun in the Stella Stevens role from Peckinpah's picture. Burt Reynolds contributes an effective cameo as a poker player who skins the heroes early on.
Tech credits are fine and film has several unmemorable songs sung over by Tillis, Clark, Campbell and Waylon Jennings.
