Kentucky Jubilee (1951)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Watching Kentucky Jubilee put me in mind of Hee Haw only Hee Haw was far better. The idea that some Broadway big shot would send a reporter to cover this event held in the hills of old Kentucky and even a bad Hollywood director would be looking for movie material here really boggles the mind. But I do have low expectations from Lippert Pictures and they met the threshold in Kentucky Jubilee.James Ellison is the reporter, Fritz Feld the director and Russell Hicks the big shot together with a whole cast of players all of whom have seen better films and acts that were the type that brought vaudeville to a close. Villains Archie Twitchell and Michael Whalen are trying to steal the box office take from the Kentucky Jubilee, but our heroes ain't about to let that happen.Jerry Colonna is also here and Colonna is a funny guy but like Phil Silvers best in small doses. He's the master of ceremonies and the kind that makes you want to get the acts hurriedly on.If you liked Hee Haw you'll pine nostalgically for it after seeing Kentucky Jubilee.

A Hollywood film-director has been sent to Hickory Kentucky to find material and acts for a hill-billy picture.He is kidnapped by henchmen of a big-town city slicker who has taken over the operation of the town's annual jubilee..mostly using bottom-of-the-barrel acts from the swamps of Florida. A Hollywood trade-paper reporter, sent to cover the event, finally thwarts the gang's plans to loot the civic coffers and the local bank. Jerry Colonna, between the 15 stagings of acts, from it appears Florida, of the type that killed vaudeville, flits in and out as a hired emcee, who also gets kidnapped. As for the singers, there are LOTS of them--as if you were watching a no-talent talent-show in Florida...and the losers were cast in this film. The exception is a former winner of a Texas talent show, Jean Porter from Cisco Texas.

While the idea of a film set in Kentucky with Jerry Colonna might make a Kentuckian's eyes roll, the film is NOT the sort of film you might anticipate. It's NOT a 'make fun of hillbillies' film at all but about Colonna and some friends heading to Kentucky and encountering a lot of old-time country-western sort of singers--and a plot involving kidnappers. As for the singers, there are LOTS of them--as if you are watching a talent show in Arkanasas or Texas. If you love this sort of stuff, you're in luck--if you don't, it's pretty slow going...at best.As for Colonna, he's pretty much what you'd expect--full of wisecracks, goggle-eyed expressions and the like. On hand are a variety of very recognizable faces--though the names of most will escape you. Note the adorable Jean Porter--here sporting blonde hair. Overall, this is a film that is a time-passer at best. Not all that funny and chock full of country talent-show style entertainment.

Kentucky Jubilee is a valuable film historically because it captures the waning days of vaudeville, when it still had some hold in the small towns of rural America, and presents artists who would NEVER have been seen in a major-studio production. While the film has a tongue-in-cheek crime plot involving Jimmie "Shamrock" Ellison and Raymond Hatton (both fresh from the Monogram Johnny Mack Brown series AND the six Lippert westerns that director Ron Ormond shot in one month the year before), the centerpoint of the film is a number of unsophisticated vaudeville routines--cornpone comics, contortionists, country duo singers, etc. The host of the show and a character in the "frame story" also is bug-eyed in-your-face comedian Jerry Colonna, probably remembered best for his time with the late Bob Hope. That Lippert Pictures would release films such as this and a minstrel show film as late as 1951 says a lot about the small-town audiences who consumed Lippert films (there's an interesting section on the minstrel show film in Nick Tosches' book about Emmett Miller). Ellison has always been a charming leading man and Hatton is a seasoned pro (dating back to the silent era!) always worth watching, plus the film is a who's-who of late 40s b-movie supporting players, from Vince Barnett to Fritz Feld to Michael Whalen and Jack Dietzen. So if you find a Ron Ormond-directed vaudeville film with Jimmie "Shamrock" Ellison a tempting proposition, this film is for you. Those interested in the history of popular entertainment should also find it worthwhile...and it's not a bad way to waste 70 minutes.