DIRECTOR: Max Baer
BOTTOM LINE: Why did Billy Joe McAllister jump off the Tallahassee Bridge? After listening to Bobbie Gentry’s haunting song, the question we have always been asking ourselves should have remained a mystery. That was the song’s allure—the song’s magic. Unfortunately, in the summer of 1976, the mystery was “solved” by screenwriter Herman Raucher (“Summer of ’42) and actor turned director Max Baer (formerly Jethro in “The Beverly Hillbillies”) whether we liked it or not. The answer: because he slept with a man. Robby Benson is sympathetic as the unfortunate title character as is Glynnis O’Connor as his girlfriend – until the plot overtakes her toward the end. Meanwhile, Joan Hotchkis is as perfect as O’Connor’s mother. However, the film is reductive and backward-looking, and the final scene can only be described as outrageous.
STREAMING: Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Sixty-Eight Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967)
Sixty-Eight Queer Films Made Under the Hays Code (1934-1967) Table Summary
https://thebrownees.net/sixty-nine-queer-films-of-the-new-hollywood-1967-1981
Sixty-nine-Queer Films of the New Hollywood (1967-1981) Table Summary
