Preacherman (1971)

Director: Albert T. Viola

Writers: Harvey Flaxman, Albert T. Viola

Composers: Roland Pope, W. Henry Smith

Starring: Albert T. Viola, Ilene Kristen, Adam Hesse, Marian Brown, Esty F. Davis Jr., W. Henry Smith, Bill Simpson, Garland Atkins, Colleen McGee

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Lock Up Your Women...Hide Your Money and Booze...Preacherman is Coming to Town!

Plot: Phony backwoods preacher Amos T. Huxley stays in a small North Carolina town long enough to fleece his congregation, swindle the profits from a moonshine still, and seduce dumb blonde Mary Lou. Mary Lou's ex-boyfriend becomes suspicious of the preacher and gets the local police to investigate his actions.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No, but I will check out the sequel, PREACHERMAN MEETS WIDDERWOMAN (1973).

This looked bad and it almost is.  Viola, who also wrote, produced and directed this fine film, does a decent job as the titular character.  There's a little bit of nudity, but what's there, courtesy of the voluptuous Ilene Kristen, is great.  Sadly the boobs only show up in the first half.  There was plenty of opportunity for more but Viola robbed us of them.  The characters are Southern cartoon stereotypes and the accents are even worse.  Viola's is pretty good but then he had more time to work on it.  The last twenty minutes showcases his talent for preaching but that sequence goes on far too long.  I started having flashbacks to when I was a kid, forced to sit through those bullshit sermons when my mom made us kids give up our Sunday mornings for a load of claptrap.  A few shots of bourbon later and I was OK (now, not as a kid...looking back I wish I had some bourbon then).  The new Troma release poster/DVD cover shows some crashing cars but don't expect any SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) type of action here.  Now if they'd put the Preacherman behind the wheel with Jesus riding shotgun outrunning the law, I'd fire up the simultinis and watch that one!