THE MOVIE

Oh, boy. Here we have a real relic from the past. The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas occupies a space in the American cinema which is currently barren and - largely - forgotten, that of the musical comedy. You probably remember them from the 1970's and 1980's. The most popular, and most memorable, being The Blues Brothers , a film which is now considered a canonical art of 1980's American film, not to mention being a strident, respected feature on the cultural radar of the Western world. The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas is... not a lot like The Blues Brothers.

Essentially a series of song and dance pieces broken up by slices of propulsive narrative, the film charts the rise, and rise, of a brothel in the deep south of Texas. Burt Reynolds, the boyfriend of the brothel's pneumatic, massively-proportioned madam (Dolly Parton), turns a blind eye to the technically illegal activities taking place, due to both his relationship, and the historical significance of the site. Yeah. Sure. Dom Deluise, a scheming senator, wants to shut down the brothel, much to the dismay of the entire cast. Plot? Come on. This is a musical. Just enough plot to get the songs in the film, thanks. Oh, and I haven't mentioned this - but the entire film is narrated by...

By...

.... Jim Nabors.

Yes. Gomer Pyle himself stars as our very own Greek Chorus. Which brings me to my next point - what is wrong with this film? I have to be honest, and admit that I am not the world's biggest fan of musicals. Or musical comedies. Oh, I love music - and music with a narrative is definately my thing - but the sight of a cast of well-known actors bursting into song, and dancing around the set, is not something that fills my heart with glee. I despised Grease. I loathed The Rocky Horror Show. The only musicals I can deal with are The Blues Brothers and any Henson-directed Muppet film. That being said, while The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas made me openly cringe at various points, it was in no way as utterly horrible as, say, Grease 2. The main actors all played ludicrous parodies of themselves - Dolly Parton was a REALLY busty, REALLY down-home country gal. Burt Reynolds was a REALLY virile, REAL man. Jim Nabors was a... REAL idiot. And, that is what this is - a cartoon for grown-ups. It's not any GOOD, but it certainly works as brain candy for an hour and a half. Maybe I'm just a snotty little generation-Y twerp, and I am of the wrong generation to enjoy this kind of stuff - this film comes from the time when comedy didn't need to be dripping with irony, and postmodern self-referential dialogue, and for that, I should be grateful. But, for some reason, I'm not. It's not that this is an especially bad film - it just seems so...so... bland.

However, if you are a Dolly Parton fan, this should be right up your alley. Indeed, if you are interested in country music, you should get a kick out of this - it is, however, an acquired taste - and a particularly dated relic from a genre of film that is all but extinct.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

"The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas" is presented in 2.35:1, and is not anamorphically enhanced. Visually, the image quality is distinctly lacking, with a washed-out, grainy image, and noticeable artifacing throughout. The color saturation is a particular problem, with a film like this, in that it is designed to have a flamboyant, exaggerated color scheme - which we never really receive in this transfer - all colors are muted. Interestingly, a number of commentators on this release of the film have noticed that there seems to be problems with the aspect ratio - with certain scenes appearing squashed and compressed. Considering that the film was originally released in 2.35:1, I can only surmise that this is an issue with the source material, rather than Universal's release.

Audio:

Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack offered here. Unexciting - it is a serviceable track, with no audio sync problems, and is clean and audible at all times. The song and dance sequences come off reasonably well, with a good bass-heavy mix.

THE EXTRAS

As with the current crop of Universal releases, we are given a trailer and... that's it. The trailer is in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is... a trailer. I would have loved to have seen some kind of featurette with the always-entertaining Ms. Parton, but - evidently - this film is not high enough on Universal's list of priorities to actually put some effort into it's release.

SUMMARY

Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton, and Jim Nabors - doing country music. If you're the person who likes this sort of thing - then this is the sort of thing that you will like. If you know what I mean. As for me, I found the film an amusing, if disposable romp, which is very dated, and is presented in a transfer which leaves a lot to be desired. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but Universal need to stop being so remiss with their treatment of their back catalogue - lest they face becoming the Avenue One of major release companies.