This film is a wonderful little gem that has not gathered any good reviews simply because it has never been shown or seen by anyone since it's 1959 theatrical release! Not on TV or cable, so it remains a real curio item. The songs are pleasing, the story is simple; no real plot, just a lots of fun with this co-starring cast of old-timers along with the newcomers. Great little characters long the way played to mold the good corn: L. Q, Jones-over the top with one of his early intended humor''in-yor-face hysterics-roles'-breaking his leg after getting thrown by a horse; Claude Akins gets almost trigger happy when he threatens the boys camping fun warning them '' not to have them dogs take to getting his Hogs all chawed-up along the creek"!! There's Jane Darwell in one of her last pictures as a grandma who warns ''of all that liquor flowin' at the barn dance that would will surely cause a ruckus!!'' . AND Betty Field, Arthur O'Connell, and one-hit wonder Dodie Stevens singing at the barn dance, too! I guess you'd have to be among the baby-boomers to identify with this cast, so I guess it's one of those movies that will melt away in memory since it has not been released on video. Films of that wonderful era are getting farther away from us in time- and they will be forgotten simply because all of the old classic stuff has been dwarfed by all of the new-century menu of rapidly-edited super charged items that are no longer MOVIES, to begin with--presented like action-packed video games with awfully bland no-name actors among some who are sometimes animated, anyway! HOUND DOG MAN is simply a lot of CLEAN fun with a great little cast from that era, about two young brothers going on a hunting trip--the time set in the beginning of the last century, Filmed near BIG BEAR LAKE, CA when it was still an uncrowded paradise in 1959. Neat songs, too! But of course you SHOULD like, the not- hard- to- like FABIAN, who went on to co-starring roles at FOX, then more movies and music generating a fabulous career. Don Siegel directed ELVIS next, in FLAMING STAR (1960). HOUND DOG MAN is a Jerry Wald Production. A 20th CENTURYFOX CINEMASCOPE PICTURE, COLOR BY DELUXE.
