FYI, the movie referred to in my Sunday column is the cheesily named "…tick…tick…tick…," starring former NFL great Jim Brown (as the sheriff) and George Kennedy.
At least, I think that’s the movie I was thinking of. My slight uncertainty on that point kept me from naming it in the column.
My intention had been to get a copy of it and double-check the quotation that was my reason for bringing it up. Unfortunately, it is sufficiently forgotten and obscure that Netflix apparently never heard of it. I searched under the title, under George Kennedy and under Jim Brown, with no success. I even searched under "Fredric March," since I had learned from Wikipedia that that was his penultimate screen appearance. Nope.
So it is that in the column, and had to fudge the quotation by saying "Or something like that." The point is that (even if I’m remembering it all wrong), it was the first time I remember the phrase "good old boy" being used in popular culture. That would still be true — that I remember it that way — even if my memory is mistaken.
If it is mistaken, and you can prove it, I’d appreciate your pointing it out. Really. I’ll publish a correction and everything.
Oh, and for those of you who are really into trivia, this movie was made in 1970, which was three years after the two stars had appeared together in "The Dirty Dozen," which it just so happens I was watching on DVD the other night. Will wonders never cease?
1967 was a big year for George Kennedy. His part in "The Dirty Dozen" may have been small, but that’s also the year that he created "Dragline," for which he will always be best remembered.
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Could this what you are looking for??? Movie name is Tick, Tick, Tick
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When Jimmy Price (Jim Brown) wins an upset victory for sheriff, he becomes the first black man ever to hold the job (or any elective office) in anyone’s memory in his rural southern county. He also sets off an ominous rumblings as the entire county seems split apart by his presence — Mayor Parks (Fredric March) offers him the support of his office, but many whites aren’t prepared to accept a black man as sheriff, while most of the whites that can accept him aren’t saying so too loudly; a lot of older black residents, remembering decades of Jim Crow laws that only lately disappeared, are more confused than encouraged by Price’s victory, while younger, more radical black citizens like George Harvey (Bernie Casey) have little use for Price’s straight-arrow personality; they expect him to show them favoritism, and when he doesn’t, they suspect him of being an nothing but a white man in black skin. Even Price’s own wife (Janet MacLachlan) wonders if the cost of his being sheriff is too high. He finds himself alone, walking a tightrope between all of the forces pulling at him, and then the whole situation threatens to explode when he arrests the good-for-nothing son (Bob Random) of a wealthy man from the next county, who has killed a child while driving drunk. Soon the local klavern of the Ku Klux Klan is planning a meeting, and a lynch mob seems to be gathering across the county line to break the prisoner loose and take care of the sheriff. Price finally gets some unexpected help from his embittered predecessor, John Little (George Kennedy) — Little would like nothing more than to sulk over losing his longtime job, but with his wife’s coaxing he realizes that he can’t let Price fail without the risk of destroying everything he worked for years to build. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Now I know why you brought this up.
Just to add that there are other movies about local politics that are worth seeing:
A Flash of Green by Victor Nunez (1984)
A Flash of Green is about big money developers, political corruption, and a newspaper editor in a small town in Florida.
Confederacy Theory (2002)
Confederacy Theory is about the “compromise” in 2000, and it features Arthur Ravenel, Glenn McConnell, and Rev. Joe Darby, among others.
By the way, Confederacy Theory is available for checkout at the Richland-Main library.
I never heard of that latter one. I’ll have to check it out.
But "A Flash of Green" I remember well. I think it starred Ed Harris. Here’s what I remember about it: Back in the late 80s when I was supervising the political reporters in The State‘s newsroom, Charlie Pope worked for me. He covered environmental issues (a similar beat to what Sammy Fretwell does now).
Anyway, Charlie used to go on and on about what a great movie that was. His favorite part? A reporter locks his editor up in the trunk of his car so that the editor can’t spike his story. Or something like that. I’ll e-mail Charlie and have him give us his take on it in more detail. Too bad you won’t be able to hear his evil little "heh-heh-heh" as he tells it…
Charlie, by the way, is now in the Washington bureau of a paper in the Pacific Northwest, which is great for him because it means his editor is really, really far away. Great for the editor too, I suppose. Charlie’s the one who gave us a heads-up on the great campaign ads of Steve Novick, the 4’9" candidate with "the hard left hook."