The greatest movie ever made..!

Crappy film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Hillbilly comedy casts Glen Campbell as Norwood, a U.S. Marine returned home from service, who finds life changed--and not for the better--in his Texas hometown. He has his sights on playing guitar and singing country music for a program called the Louisiana Hayride, and travels cross-country to New York City for an audition (this section of the movie, with Norwood in a cowboy hat walking the big city streets, feels like a G-rated version of "Midnight Cowboy"). The details in this scrubbed-clean scenario aren't rich and the characters Norwood meets on his journey aren't vividly drawn. Feature film debut for director Jack Haley, Jr. has warmth and a big heart, but no substance. Campbell keeps his face slack (like a rube) and his manners polite, and he's appealing if fidgety. Producer Hal B. Wallis reunites Campbell with his "True Grit" co-star Kim Darby, and the two have a warm rapport (especially in the scene at the food counter). Football star Joe Namath makes his acting debut as a soldier, Billy Curtis is fun as a little person who becomes Norwood's traveling companion, and there's also a college-educated chicken (don't ask). Adapted from a novel by Charles Portis (the author of "True Grit") from "Grit"'s screenwriter, Marguerite Roberts; however, there's nothing gritty about this yokel fantasy, which is completely out-of-touch with reality and presented only as escapist fare. ** from ****

Some of the people from in front of and behind the camera of True Grit bring us this easy going country story starring Glen Campbell and Kim Darby. It's not quite in the same caliber as True Grit however.Glen Campbell is returning from Vietnam to his home in the metropolis of Ralph, Texas which is a stone's throw from the Arkansas border. He goes his separate ways from Joe Namath a fellow Marine and returns home to his sister Leigh French and drip of a brother-in-law Dom DeLuise. Glen is never without his guitar and never turns down a song request. However he'd like to make a living at it and hopes to get a big break on the Louisiana Hayride country radio show, a rival of sorts to the Grand Ole Opry.After that it's an episodic adventure with him delivering a stolen car from conman Pat Hingle to New York, of course Glen doesn't find out it's stolen until he's on the road. During the course of the film he gets involved with would be actress Carol Lynley, hippie chick Tisha Sterling, and eager young bride Kim Darby. Guess whom he winds up with.Glen's singing of several country/western ballads makes the film easy to take and glosses over a lot of his lack of acting ability. Had he come along thirty years earlier Campbell might have been a good singing cowboy star, but those days have passed. No real plot in Norwood just a series of incidents on his journey to New York and back.Whatever else it is Norwood is not True Grit, but Glen Campbell fans might like it.

The only reason I'm aware of Norwood is that I graduated high school in NC in 1970. Our senior class was traditionally treated to a movie on a school morning in the week of commencement. The newfangled Park Theater (long since closed) on the east side of Burlington (now a Hispanic colony) was showing Norwood by night, so that's what we sat and watched. I appreciate the few details other posters made about the Vietnam war and Kim Darby's unwed motherhood. The movie almost sounds interesting, but it wasn't. Glen Campbell was a good musician but a joke as an actor. Broadway Joe looked great, of course, but aside from an occasional cameo on the Love Boat . . . Well, he was an even better quarterback than Campbell was a guitarist. Where'd Kim Darby go? She might have been Molly Ringwald's mother.

Glen Campbell once said that he was so bad as an actor that he made John Wayne's performance in True Grit seem Oscar worthy (Wayne's only Best Actor award). In Norwood, Glen Campbell does not have any real talent around him to overcome his weaknesses. Lets face it, the chicken that is carried around provided the most credible performance in the movie.While there is some talent in the movie, none if it surfaces. Some reviewers suggest that simply buying the Norwood soundtrack would be better for those who like Glen Campbell's music. I would point out that there may be a reason that the Norwood soundtrack tanked on the charts while almost all of Campbell's records were selling at the time. There may be a reason. (If you do want the Norwood soundtrack, try to find the "I'll Paint You A Song" album, which has the Norwood soundtrack as well as the Theme from True Grit).So, why 8 stars? First, Glen Campbell gets 8 stars as a starting point because he was a true icon at the time. Second, the movie is really so bad that it becomes good. The jokes fall flat, but the serious parts are hilarious. It is worth watching when you just want some mindless humor and mind-numbing music.