Vamos Cantar! Vamos Dançar!

An attempt by Hollywood to cash in on the early folk music craze of the sixties, "Hootenanny's" cheap budget makes it look much like a television episode.

Let's talk about the good things of this movie first:

1. A young Johnny Cash does his version of "Frankie and Johnny". It's great to see The Man In Black looking so good.

2. Pamela Austin (who went on to become "The Dodge Girl"). She is in the prime of her beauty at this time and she reveals a smoking body in her many dances.

3. Ruta Lee is also quite attractive to look at. Still, a movie career that went from "Witness for the Prosecution" to "Hootenanny Hoot" is not going well. Lots of TV game shows were to be in Ms. Lee's future.

4. Appearances by Vickie (baby got back) Dougan and an uncredited Maureen Reagan (daughter of Pres. Ronald Reagan). Ms. Dougan was a pretty gal who made a name for herself by wearing dresses in the fifties that revealed anal cleavage. Ms. Reagan shows up for a brief moment to call Joby Baker "a square".

Um, that's about it.

The folk music is innocuous for the most part. Although by the end of the movie, I found myself really disliking Sheb Wooley, who gets to do three songs, including the title theme. Would have been nice to see Johnny Cash showcased more. The Gateway Trio made me nauseous jumping on a trampoline in the chorus of one of their amusing (?) songs. For token's sake, they throw in two black guys, Joe and Eddie (no, not Flo and Eddie) doing a rousing hand-clapping version of "There's A Meeting Here Tonight". Hopefully, it's not a KKK meeting.

Pretty silly film in the end. I can only recommend it for a look at a young Johnny Cash, the marvelous legs of Ms. Austin and Ms. Ruta Lee showing some attractive décolletage and gams.