Hound-Dog Man

Fred Gipson's bucolic novel of Southern country folk was the main attraction for Siegel here (Peckinpah thought of filming it too), but he reckoned without producer Jerry Wald's insistence that Fabian get the lead as the young chap learning about life and love on a hunting jaunt with older, wiser Whitman. This meant eight songs from a star who admitted his own frailty in the vocal department, but Siegel integrates them into the action, has the rest of the cast join in on occasion, and swiftly moves on with the action. The music certainly doesn't detract from an amiable outdoor adventure with a pleasing line in deflating macho bullshit. And nothing whatsoever to do with Elvis.