Your Cheatin' Heart

This movie was a real surprise to me. I thought at first it would be a typical Hollywood biopic of a singer - boy starts off poor, is troubled when he hits the big time, starts messing up, picture ends tragically but celebrates his legend... much like a Mad magazine pastiche. "Your Cheatin Heart" seems to gloss over some of the events of Hank William's life. I didn't know all that much about him but I had that impression. Even so, this is a gripping picture. I was transfixed and I don't like country music. George Hamilton can act! He strongly expresses Williams' conflicts over his career and marriage. Susan Oliver is a revelation too. Why wasn't she offered more films? (I knew I saw her somewhere before: she was Vina in Star Trek's "The Cage".) The ending is tragic and the viewer can probably see it coming even if he or she doesn't know about Williams' early death. Still, the scene of the empty stage had me in tears. The film shows deep feeling for Williams' music and his fans. By far the best thing about Your Cheatin' Heart is Williams' songs, especially the rendition of "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry", which was what I was doing.