Hillbillys in a Haunted House

This movie is one of the worse movies I have ever watched!!! There isn't even anything "haunted" about this movie except maybe some fake hanging skeleton dangling on a wall. All the actors were terrible as well and to have brung some of the famous horror actors in this film is just giving them all bad credit. They must have been desperate and at the end of their career's to have been in this flop. There is nothing haunted about this movie except watching this film! This one deserves a 0!!

I love exploitation flicks, but this is the bottom of the barrel. This sequel to LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS is trash of a new kind. No MUNSTERS or BEVERLY HILLBILLIES episode was ever this lame. Ferlin Husky is terrible and the guy who plays Jeepers is a complete idiot. Joi Lansing, although pretty with a great body, is a poor replacement for Mamie Van Doren in the first film, as Boots Malone.

I gave this a 2 instead of a 1 because of the title and John Carradine maintains his dignity (somehow). Basil Rathbone looks uncomfortable. Lon Chaney, Jr. looks to be in pain. Linda Ho is boring. Terrible music and creepy color. Best performance = Anatole the gorilla. LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS was bad enough to be fun..but this one - sorry folks.

It is a sad sight indeed watching three veteran stars of the silver screen, and in particular the horror genre, be reduced to nothing more than scenery in an otherwise drab, dreary, dull film about a trio of country western singers holed up in a haunted house for the night. Ferlin Husky and Joi Lansing(as Boots Malone) and Don Hall inadvertantly stumble upon a haunted house being used by agents against an organization(MOTHER). When they are not running from being scared, each one 'entertains' us with a good ole country classic. All in all I counted no fewer than 14...yes count 'em....14 songs sung by the trio, a band of passers-by that just happen to sing as a group, two people on television sing for the Country Western Hour, and at the end of the film, when the story about the agents and the house has all been cleared up...at least six songs that go one after the other and the picture abruptly ends. This is not a horror picture. It is not even a picture with a real story. It is just an excuse to showcase what little talent the singers have. Now to be fair, Merle Haggard does a couple numbers, and a few of the songs aren't too terrible. But why make a movie like this....why star three of the genre greats and then give them little to do? Basil Rathbone certainly deserved better than this for his last(or next to last film). He is good in his small role and his scenes with John Carradine are fun to watch as they wade through the atrocious dialogue given to them. And what about poor Lon? It looks like he just woke up from a weekend bender. Again a shame for such a good actor! Despite these many...many shortcomings(and as I stated earlier there were at least 14)...Hillbillys in a Haunted House should be required viewing for serious genre fans just to have a few good real hearty laughs and to see those great men..even though not at their best...one last time. Other than that, the only other saving grace is easily Ms. Lansing and her stiffening blouse...a real treat for the eyes!

Of the 13 feature films in which John Carradine and Lon Chaney both appeared, 1967's "Hillbillys in a Haunted House" was not only the last, it was one of the few where they actually shared any scenes (shot under the working title "Ghost Party"). Joined in villainy by a game, 74 year old Basil Rathbone, the three actors offer the only real novelty to this tired rehash of old dark house clichés, dragged down by its abundance of country music. A sequel to the successful "Las Vegas Hillbillys" (note the spelling!), retaining stars Ferlin Husky and Don Bowman, but replacing the absent Jayne Mansfield with the equally photogenic Joi Lansing. En route to Nashville for a good old fashioned jamboree, the trio break down and have to spend the night in a house that's not really haunted; its actually the home base for spies trying to steal a top secret formula from a local rocket base. John Carradine alternately scowls and grimaces as Dr. Himmil, when he's not mercilessly teasing the gorilla Anatole belonging to Lon Chaney's Maximillian, who goes undercover by getting past an unsuspecting janitor (all he gets for his trouble is a formula combining nitroglycerin and antihistamine!). As Gregor, Basil Rathbone shares most of his scenes with Carradine, using phony ghosts and noises to try to scare off their dimwitted intruders, whom they mistake for agents from M.O.T.H.E.R. (Master Organization to Halt Enemy Resistance). A genuine ghost closes out the spy stuff at 67 minutes, leaving the final two reels open for yet more musical numbers. Chaney is clearly having a grand time, and Rathbone too, while poor Carradine has to remain sullen for the most part, fewer opportunities to be funny (he did enjoy stealing Anatole's banana!). As bad as the film's reputation is, consider how much worse it would have been without its heavyweight cast of screen villains.

I visited Nashville in 1998 and paid my respects to the great and the good of country music by spending an afternoon in the hallowed precincts of the Country Music Hall of Fame ,where one exhibit was devoted to the movies featuring the great names of the genre . I was left reflecting that by and large the movie industry has not been kind to country music and that most of the movies given exhibition space were low budget productions from poverty stricken regional studios ,rather than the big Hollywood companies . This lame brain picture exemplifies the kind of no brain movies they turned out and the patronising stance of such studios to their audience and the music it contained ,being a parade of stereotypes which pokes fun at country people and their music of choice Ferlin Husky plays a country singer who is stranded for a night in the eponymous house alongside his " girl singer " and business manager .It is a suitably creepy place -festooned with cobwebs and adorned with secret passages .It also happens to be the base for a spy network headed by a mysterious Oriental lady and her henchmen -slumming horror greats lon Chaney ,John Carradine and the wonderful Basil Rathbone .Not to mention a gorilla ! Do the musical trio triumph over their adversaries and make it to the big Nashville show ? Well , if you like country music and admire the work of the veteran actors I name checked earlier its just about worth watching to find out . By any objective standards this is dreadful but at least Rathbone and Carradine are worth watching although somewhat the worse for wear physically.However it is the presence of country music great Merle Haggard doing two numbers and the involvement of lesser but talented artists like Sonny James and Molly Bee that are mainly instrumental in sustaining interest

The last 20 minutes are devoted to a concert that has nothing to do with the plot and is unimaginatively staged and shot but whose peformances are historically fascinating and help make me like the movie more than it really deserves . Now will someone in the movie industry treat this great music -The true national music of America -with the respect due to it ?