Cast and Crew:  Waylon Jennings (Balladeer); Bob Clark (Producer)

What It’s About: Grady (James Mitchum) and Bobby Lee Hagg (Kiel Martin) run moonshine for their Uncle Jesse (Arthur Hunnicutt).  Jesse is the last of the honest moonshiners, and it isn’t long before Grady and Bobby are up against the Dixie Mob and local Sheriff Roscoe Coltrane (Bruce Atkins).

Why Watch it Today?: Fans of The Dukes of Hazzard may detect some similarities between the TV show which premiered today in 1979 and the brief synopsis of Moonrunners above.  It was from this film that writer/director Gy Waldron would create the popular TV show that ran from 1979 until 1985.  In addition to the amusement that fans of the show can have comparing the much rougher hicksploitation drive-in fare of the film to the toned down family friendly TV show (light bulb moment:  “So THAT is why the cops are always after them” when you realize they’re moonshiners), Moonrunners is a competent and entertaining slice of 1970s redneck entertainment.

Where to Get It:  Good luck finding this one-tragically, some of the films that you SHOULD be watching, are very, very hard to come by.

The Trailer: