Return to Macon County Reviews

A sorry exploitation film that sought to capitalize on the success of MACON COUNTY LINE, this sort-of sequel uses the area's name in the title but little else, as most of the characters were slain in the first film. Nolte and Johnson, who both went on to become major stars in their own media, are best friends in 1958, like the two guys in ROUTE 66, except they don't drive a Corvette. If they did, they wouldn't have room to pick up Mattson, a nutty young woman who has a beguiling smile but a sadistic streak. The two men get into a "chicken" race with Daniels and Greene, a pair of tough teenagers, and are pursued by them as well as by redneck cop Viharo. Greene and Daniels are killed mistakenly, and Viharo winds up under arrest by his officers. Johnson and Sayer share a brief romantic fling while Mattson and Nolte have a go at it in the next room at their motel. The story is mindless, and altogether too much time is spent in travelog shots. It resembles many of the films made by AIP in earlier days, but it's not as good. Some blue language and the badly shot love scenes might have been more appropriate in a Santa Monica Boulevard "grind house" than in a real movie theater. Johnson and Nolte are good actors caught in an inane movie that existed only to make use of the "Macon County" name. At best, it might have made a fair 30-minute segment for a TV show. At 89 minutes it's thick with padding. It was Nolte's first picture after making his name in the TV miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man." After Arkoff sold his American International Pictures to Filmways, it promptly folded. Arkoff became an independent and called his firm Arkoff International, thereby gaining back the same acronym he'd used before.