Outlaw Blues *** (1977, Peter Fonda, Susan Saint James, John Crawford, James T Callahan, Michael Lerner) – Classic Movie Review 10,272

Director Richard T Heffron’s slack and lazy but very affable 1977 concoction Outlaw Blues stars Peter Fonda as the singing former jailbird Bobby Ogden, whose material, the title song Outlaw Blues, is pirated by an established country star, Garland Dupree (James T Callahan), in Texas.

When Garland Dupree (Callahan) is shot in a brawl, police boss Buzz Cavanaugh (John Crawford) leads the hunt for Bobby Ogden (Fonda).

Bill W L Norton’s interesting, wobbly, semi-successful script staggers from mild satire to crazy comedy to country musical interludes to action – and somewhere along the line manages to entertain well enough.

Susan Saint James scores as Tina Walters, Garland Dupree (Callahan)’s back-up singer who looks after Bobby Ogden (Fonda) and promotes his music career, and Michael Lerner is excellent as Hatch, a creepy music mogul.

Also in the cast are John Crawford, Steve Fromholz, Richard Lockmiller, Matt Clark, Jan Rita Cobler, Gene Rader, Curtis Harris, Jerry Greene, Dave Helfert, Jeffrey Friedman and James N Harrell.

RIP Easy Rider star Peter Fonda, who died at 79 on August 16, 2019.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,272

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