Nashville Girl (1976)

Very well executed

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Fresh and Exciting

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

An endearing performance by lovely 70s starlet Monica Gayle ("Switchblade Sisters") is the centerpiece of this low budget, exploitative Roger Corman spin on a "Coal Miner's Daughter" type of story. Monica plays Jamie Barker, a teenage girl who leaves home, and hits the road to Nashville, with visions of country music stardom dancing in her head. She finds it to be a very bumpy road, since almost every male in sight is sleazy to one degree or another. Things start to look up when she makes the acquaintance of session musician Kelly (Roger Davis, 'Dark Shadows'), and country star Jeb Hubbard (Glenn Corbett, 'Route 66')."Nashville Girl" was written & produced by Peer J. Oppenheimer ('Operation C.I.A.'), and directed by one of the under rated filmmakers of the decade, Gus Trikonis ("Moonshine County Express"). It's a not uninteresting walk on the dark side of Nashville; as the story progresses, there's just one constant string of male characters who seem more interested in getting into Jamies' pants rather than helping her career.It is disheartening to see how often guys will take advantage of our heroine. It's likewise unfortunate to see her have a tough time making money. At one point, despite her misgivings, she takes a job as a masseuse. The good news is that there are some helpful female influences in her life, such as Frisky (Shirley Jo Finney, "The River Niger") and Jebs' wife Fran (Judith Roberts, "Eraserhead"). And there's quite a bit of lovely country music to enjoy. (Gayle doesn't do her own singing, but lip synchs adequately.) Ultimately, it ends on a hopeful note, with Jamie determined to succeed on her own terms.The solid cast also includes familiar faces like screenwriter / actor Leo Gordon ("The Haunted Palace"), Jesse White ("Harvey"), and Marcie Barkin ("Fade to Black"). Gayle is radiant in the lead, and for those who are interested, she does strip down to her birthday suit for an early bout of skinny dipping.Entertaining stuff that, at an hour and 32 minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome.Seven out of 10.

This movie teams up two underrated talents from the 1970's. The first is director Gus Trikonis (the former Mr. Goldie Hawn) who directed big-screen exploitation flicks like "Swinging Barmaids" and "The Student Body", underrated horror fare like "The Evil", and superior made-for-TV movies like "The Darker Side of Terror". The second is actress Monica Gayle, a breath-taking natural beauty who spent a good portion of all her movies modeling her luscious birthday suit, and as a result perhaps was never really given her due as an actress. With the possible exception of "Strawberries Need Rain", this is her best film.Gayle plays "Jamie", a sixteen-year-old runaway, who comes to Nashville to try to make it as a songwriter. Her character is not unlike the actress herself in that while she is actually genuinely talented, none of the loutish male agents and producers she interviews with seem to notice because they are all too busy trying to dip their wicks in her. One washed-up country music celebrity finally does take advantage of her MUSICAL talents, but he too eventually becomes possessed by her irresistible, nubile charms and for awhile this kind of turns into a low-budget, country-music version of "A Star is Born".This is not exactly a feminist film. "Jamie" is forcibly raped twice, taken advantage of my every man she meets, and at one point even ends up in a juvenile detention center after she's caught in a massage parlor bust (while a client is giving HER a massage). And, of course, in the camp she falls prey to the stereotypical lesbian guard. Despite all the exploitative elements though, Trikonis crafts a fairly realistic movie that does really show the seedy side of Nashville. It's not "Coal Miner's Daughter", but it's not exactly trying to be either. It's also not Robert Altman's "Nashville", but I found it a lot more fun to watch. And I actually thought it was quite a bit BETTER than the 70's version of "A Star Is Born" (with the insufferable Barbra Streisand). The country music songs are quite good (although unlike Sissy Spacek, Karen Black, and a lot of the actresses in the aforementioned movies, Gayle's singing was quite obviously dubbed). I hadn't heard a lot of the songs before, but there is a good cover of the Bob Will's classic "Faded love". I'd definitely recommend this one.

You know you're in for a four-star 70's drive-in sleazy treat when barely two minutes into the picture the luscious and adorable Monica Gayle, a lovely sprite actress who appeared in trashy films for such B-movie luminaries as Jack Hill, Harry Novak, Gary Graver and Larry Buchanan, peels her clothes off to go skinny-dipping while the opening credits are still rolling. Of course, some vile, scummy degenerate hillbilly dude comes along and savagely rapes poor Monica, thus giving her a credible excuse to run away from home with acoustic guitar in tow and go to Nashville to make it as an honest-to-goodness country music star. The ever perky and appealing Gayle, as naive, but feisty and determined Loretta Lynn-like 16-year-old Kentucky hick chick Jamie Barker, receives a ride into town from gruff trucker Leo Gordon and promptly learns that the only way to really make it in Nashville is by making love with the right powerful music biz people. Pretty soon Jamie is gladly hopping in the sack with every lecherous older man who's got the hots for her. Alas, Jamie runs low on cash and is forced to work at a seedy massage parlor as a receptionist. And, wouldn't you know it, Jamie gets arrested and has to do hard time at a prison work farm where one of the predatory lesbian guards sexually assaults her in the shower! Fortunately, Jamie gets paroled and befriends nice guy session musician Kelly (amiably played by "Flash and the Firecat" 's Roger Davis), who introduces her to country music superstar Jeb Hubbard (burly Glen Corbett), an overbearing jerk of a control freak with a fatal weakness for young girls. Hubbard makes Jamie his protégé, renames her Melody Mason, and turns her into the major league star she always dreamed of being. But this overnight fame and fortune comes at a terrible price, with Jamie becoming increasingly lonely, cynical, arrogant and disillusioned as her innocence gets irrevocably shattered.Boy, talk about a wildly colorful and eventful never-a-dull-minute busy narrative! Better still, along with the abundant Gayle nudity, Gus Trikonis' brisk, get-right-to-the-point efficient direction, several astounding scenes featuring Gayle singing both in the recording studio and on stage with a (dubbed?) strong, brassy contralto voice, a standard rags-to-riches story that becomes more delightfully lurid and melodramatic as the movie progresses forward (in fact, this entire picture plays like a tightly streamlined $1.98 discount version of "Coal Miner's Daughter"), a cameo appearance by mid-level country-and-western singer Johnny Rodriguez as himself, and a funny performance by late, great character actor Jesse White as a greedy dirtbag music publisher, this fabulous grindhouse gem even comes complete with a sincere cautionary morale: Country music superstardom ain't exactly what it's cracked up to be. Now, that's precisely what prime 70's exploitation cinema is all about: sex, bare skin, scuzzy plot twists and, most importantly, a redeeming pertinent social message, too!

Monica Gale is Jamie, a 16 years old girl who travels to Nashville to try her luck in the country music business. Sadly, Jamie is really beautiful, and every man in the city is trying to get laid with her. She is confused, and sometimes she agrees. She goes to prison for a while (in a sexploitation way). Later, she knows a country music star who supports her, but he falls in love of her, and everything spoils. In one scene, this guy rapes her, meanwhile Jamie sister is listening the attack by phone. Musical, sort of "Coal Miner's Daughter" kind of movie, but with several nudes of thin, delicate, absolutely irresistible Gale. Quentin Tarantino showed it in the Third Annual Quentin Tarantino Festival in Austin, Tx.