Outlaw Blues

'You'll never catch me alive - except on KVET,' boasts country-singing ex-con Peter Fonda in a tone both romantic and expedient, which sums up the genial anecdote that is Outlaw Blues. His song is ripped off after a prison visit by the local Johnny Cash, so the paroled Fonda goes after him, shoots him in the leg, and hides out in Susan Saint James' shed. She sees the main chance, negotiates a recording contract, and makes Fonda a celebrity by smuggling him into record stores and radio stations and then calling the cops. Heffron and writer BWL Norton might have taken the story to its logical conclusion (posthumous superstardom) instead of spending so much time on chase sequences. But as it is there are many interesting ironies, not least that an indifferent title song, poorly sung by Fonda, can be made so effective by judicious use.