Movies About Hank

Before “Lost Highway,” the two most notable fictionalizations of Hank Williams’ life were the films “Your Cheatin’ Heart” (1964) and “Hank Williams--The Show He Never Gave” (1982). Though completely different in their approaches, both films are worth watching.

“Your Cheatin’ Heart” was a severely bowdlerized version of the Williams legend that got just about everything wrong . . . but still managed to entertain audiences and spread interest in country music’s greatest talent. Among the faults: no mention of drugs, divorce or re-marriage; a softening of Williams’ character; the casting of non-country, non-lookalike George Hamilton in the lead role. On the credit side, Hamilton gave it his all, the film strongly portrayed some of the darker facets, it was well directed, and the Williams songs that Hamilton lip-synched were nicely sung by Hank, Jr., who at the time of filming was all of 14 years old!

“The Show He Never Gave”--shown at Filmex in 1982 and occasionally since on HBO and Z Channel--is something else, a low-budget Canadian production with a far more realistic and serious tone, even though it dealt with a fictionalized fantasy: On the last night of his life, alone in the back of a car, Williams thinks about what it would be like to play a small honky-tonk again. Featuring a fine performance by Sneezy Waters, who also did the singing, this Canadian film captures the pain and desolation of Williams’ last days, as well as the power of his genius.

In a sense, Peter Bogdanavich’s “The Last Picture Show” is a Hank Williams film, too, and a fine one. It’s not a biography of the singer, of course, but he’s present throughout the portrait of a small Texas town; the entire sound track is made up of his songs.

Unfortunately, these three films are not available on video.