For R.G. Armstrong (the Old Man) fans

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I was reading through some links on cryptozoology and ran across this story about a movie on a southern version of the Thunderbird of Native American lore. The movie is called "The Legend of Hillbilly John" and I can't speak to how "good" it is.

Read the crypto- article .

See the IMDB movie data.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

i noticed that Denver "Jesse Duke" Pyle is also in the movie

[Guest SouthernCelt]

i noticed that Denver "Jesse Duke" Pyle is also in the movie

Oh, yeah. "Uncle Jesse" seems to be in just about every movie with a Southern flavor that was made back in that era. I've read before where he began to look "old" at quite a young age (the opposite of what a lot of leading-men types search for) and decided to use that for his character roles. That's why he played uncles, grandpas, and sundry other middle aged to elderly characters over so many decades.

[Guest JMunch]

The movie is based on the John the Balladeer story cycle by Manly Wade Wellman who wrote the stories between 1951 and 1985. The series is highly recommended.

Wellman (1903-1986) started publishing fantasy stories in Weird Tales Magazine in 1927. Most of his stories took place in the southern states, especially in the Appalchian Mountains. He also wrote story cycles about John Thunstone and Judge Pursuivant which are connected to the John stories. All of them are fantasy and horror stories based on folk-lore combined with christian motifs.

It is interesting to compare Wellman´s work with the also highly recommended novels of Sharyn McCrumb - same setting, very different tone.

Edited March 29, 2007 by JMunch