Tomboy and the Champ
(1961), U.S.) color 92 minutes
With: Candy Moore (Tommy Jo), Ben Johnson (Uncle Jim), Jesse White (Windy Skiles), Jess Kirkpatrick (Model T. Parson), Christine Smith (Aunt Sarah), Paul Bernath (Jaspar Stockton), Rex Allen (Himself), Casey Tibbs (Himself), Jerry Naill (Himself)
***
TOMBOY AND THE CHAMP is an absolutely amazing potboiler, full of mid-America treacle, more like a soap opera than a movie, a terminally squeaky-clean family film. Witness the plot:
Candy wants to be an animal husband.
Teen star Candy Moore is cute as a wannabe superstar cowgirl, and look for Jesse White as a hepcat press agent.
TOMBOY may also have been the unwitting prototype of a genre of budget film tremendously popular in the 1960's: the "Country Musical", slapdash boxoffice bonanzas such as COTTONPICKIN' CHICKENPICKERS, LAS VEGAS HILLBILLIES and THE GOLD GUITAR.
We don't know quite what to say about this odd film. It left us largely speechless!
This bizarre bit of Americana-Obscura is dedicated to "The Heart of America."
Video/DVD availability: VHS (Goodtimes Home Video, oop)
In this extraordinary production still, Candy Moore braves a driving rainstorm to tend her show calf.
Jesse White informs John Carpenter of an unexpected development in the livestock show.
Candy Moore gives her pet Angus steer a beauty treatment.
Signal Pictures / Universal International Pictures
Screenplay: Virginia M. Cooke
Music: William Lightfoot, Tommy Reynolds,
Richard Shores, Elsie Pierce Wilkes
Cinematography: William H. Clothier
Produced by William Lightfoot, Tommy Reynolds
Directed by Francis D. Lyon
Family gives her Champy, a prize steer.
Champy gets lost.
Candy gets polio.
Champy is found.
Candy gets well.
Champy loses big contest, gets bought by beef company.
Candy goes into a coma.
Champy is rescued.
Candy recovers.
(04-26-05) Check out these amazing stills we recently acquired from Bruce Hershenson at emovieposter.com:
