Hootenanny Hoot (1963), 6- b/w, fs

The marriage of television director Ted Glover and television producer A.G. Bannister has gone on the rocks because she has permitted her career to take precedence over romance.
1h 31min | Music | August 1963 | b/w, fs
Director: Gene Nelson
Stars: Peter Breck, Ruta Lee, Joby Baker, Pamela Austin.
Harold Belfer ... choreographer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057153/

Watched online, mediocre print.

~13 songs in the Soundtracks. Only 1 by Johnny Cash.

2nd film director credit for GN.  He has at least 10 TV director credits before this, and many after.

Curious: choreographer HB (b. '22) has 44 choreographer credits, but only 11 are for music/als. He's too old to be the primary male dancer with PA. Don't see anyone identified as "dancer" in cast, and I don't think the dancer had a name in the dialog.

Writer: Robert E. Kent (as James B. Gordon)

Don't know who this is, but looking at his filmography, he started using the pseudonym in '55, so was he blacklisted in the HUAC travesty? Nothing in Wikipedia regarding the reason for the pseudonym.

PA dances a bunch with a pretty good male dancer, and both with a big ensemble. Some of it is just modern choreography, the big production number is countrified with lots of elbow action, as you would expect from the banjo-pickin' music we get to endure. This would qualify as a folksploitation film, because there are a lot of folk music/ country music acts, none of whom are integrated into the story.

A lot of screen time is given to the plot, where PB and RL tangle, and JB and PA pair up. RL plays a TV exec, so she gets some (imitation?) Chanel suits. Pretty boring stuff, and none of the 4 are great actors. But the script doesn't give them any depth, so that's ok.

Decided on 6- instead of 5 just for the primary male dancer and the ensemble. But if you watch this again, ffwd to dancing and JC. Skip the rest.

distr. MGM, dir. Nelson; 6-