The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Universal-RKO. Director Colin Higgins; Producer Thomas L. Miller, Edward K. Milkis, Robert L. Boyett; Screenplay Larry L. King, Peter Masterson, Colin Higgins; Camera William A. Fraker; Editor Pembroke J. Herring, David Bretherton, Jack Hofstra, Nicholas Eliopoulos; Music Patrick Williams; Art Director Robert F. Boyle

Burt Reynolds
Dolly Parton
Dom DeLuise
Charles Durning
Jim Nabors
Robert Mandan

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is just about everything it's meant to be - a couple of diverting hours in the dark. Rollicking, good-natured, a bit spicy and with just enough heart to avoid seeming totally synthetic, the $26 million adaptation of the 1978 Broadway hit [musical, book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, songs by Carol Hall] ideally teams powerhouse stars Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton.

Nifty prolog sketches how the title establishment is a regular Texas institution. Modest abode is currently under the proprietorship of Miss Mona, a super lady played by Parton with all her accustomed humor, warmth and knockout charm. Local Sheriff Reynolds is her b.f. of long standing, a down-home boy technically corrupt because he protects the illegal goings-on.

But nothing is sacred to media crusader Dom DeLuise, an outrageously self-serving muckraker who 'exposes' the bawdyhouse on his glitzy, song-and-dance TV news show and will stop at nothing to shut the place down.

1982: Nomination: Best Supp. Actor (Charles Durning)

(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1982. Running time: 114 MIN.

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