good back-story, and good acting

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Blistering performances.

This little-known curio is better than I expected. I hadn't heard of the source books (Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John" pulp fictions) before, because they were presumably mostly a Southern regional phenomenon, but now I'm very curious to check them out. The episodic progress, drawn from a couple of Wellman's stories, chronicles the folksy fantastical adventures of a wandering Appalachian troubadour, which include tangling with the Devil and a Ray Harryhausen-like winged monster. The last and least adventure has John managing to somehow free the oppressed black slaves, a "White Savior" scenario that doesn't play too well now. (It probably didn't in 1972, either).Offbeat and filled with pleasant music, "Hillbilly John" probably had a hard time finding an audience at the time, as it was so out of step with popular taste of the era, and it's certainly been largely forgotten since. But given a cast of mostly imported Hollywood veterans (Severn Darden, Denver Pyle, Harris Yulin etc.) and a director who'd mostly toiled in network TV, it's surprisingly flavorful and "authentic" feeling within its folkloric context. (Though he worked on a lot of major series, John Newland's best-known works were probably the TV-movie thrillers "Crawlspace" and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.") Hedges Capers, a handsome young man with a fine voice who never quite hit the bigtime as a recording artist, is appealingly natural in the title role. Sharon Henesy is a weak point as the ingenue, seeming a classic 70s example of casting "somebody's girlfriend" (rather than a talented actor)...but then all she's allowed to do is gaze adoringly at John and hope he'll quit his wanderin' ways, so it's not really her fault she seems superfluous. Despite its low budget, "Hillbilly John" is fairly well-crafted, although its neglect over the years was reflected in the fact that the YouTube dupe I saw seemed to be from an old VHS tape, and was accordingly low-quality. The nighttime sequences (of which there are many) were very murky. Alas, obscure old indie features like this are highly unlikely to get "restored" to pristine quality, so you take what you can get. Anyway, this is hardly a forgotten classic, but it's an ambitious oddity that is quite enjoyable and merits rediscovery.

It wasn't till quite some time after seeing this movie that I read any of Wellman's stories, but this movie is pretty faithful to them, at least the ones I know (though I don't know if any of the Silver John stories have "Mr. Marduk" or not). I don't know if I know Hedges Capers or the leading actress from anything else, but they were fine in it, and along with them, it's full of great character actors (though I don't think that's the right term for Susan Strasberg) - Denver Pyle, R. G. Armstrong, Severn Darden, Harris Yulin (who, apart from Darden, might have had the best part, and who really seemed to enjoy playing it). Even the political stuff, like the very end (which I won't give away) doesn't seem too forced. That ending could apply to ANY time (certainly including right now), and it would be a shame for people to think of it ENTIRELY as some NIXON JOKE (though I suppose it probably IS thought of as only that). In spite of the listing, I'm certain this movie is from 1972-73.

I remember seeing "The Legend of Hillbilly John", in my 8th grade year. I went, primarily, to see the "Ugly-Bird", a stop-motion animated creature that promised that the film could be a great ride. I believe that the animated special effects were done by Gene Warren, who would later helm the effects in the fondly remembered Saturday morning opus; "Land of the Lost". Silver John is able to destroy the creature by hitting it with his guitar, one strung with pure silver strings, the only weapon to defeat the Devil( according to this film ). It strongly reminds me of "Equinox" in places, a similar, occult/adventure flick, but "John" is much more a spiritual journey, more akin to "The Silent Flute'(aka; Circle of Iron).

I have seen this movie and consider it a gem. I am a fan of Manly Wade Wellman's fiction and found the portrayal of Silver John to be "dead on". Definitely a movie that deserves a release on DVD. While the budget was low, the emphasis on a real and genuine portrayal of Silver John was there. I found this movie to be well acted and genuine...definitely something that people today need to see, given the sorry state of cinema. I saw this film in the early 1980's. It had been released on video tape and a friend, a collector of rare movies, told me I needed to watch it. I had never heard of Manly Wade Wellman, but I instantly became a fan after seeing this movie. That should be incentive enough for anyone to at least want to watch this movie.