![]() Pusser in Smokey and the Bandit and Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). That role was most memorably taken by Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Buford T. and the Dixie Dancekings but never again portrayed the corrupt sheriff thrown for a loop by Reynolds' lovable misfit. Beatty also appeared with Reynolds again, in W.W. Hopkins co-starred with Reynolds again in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), but future "redneck" romps most often featured singer-turned-actor Jerry Reed in the sidekick role. Reynolds revived the character in the sequel Gator (1976), his first feature film directing project, which had TV talk show host Mike Douglas in the role of an ambitious state governor and Lauren Hutton as the love interest. But not before engaging in the major delight and raison d'etre of movies of this type the uproarious antics of stunt drivers on dirt roads and through the swamps of the film's Arkansas location shoot. With the help of a souped-up car, another bootlegger (Bo Hopkins), and a sexy girlfriend (Jennifer Billingsley), Gator gets the goods on the sheriff. The lawman was also responsible for the death of Gator's brother, and that provides his real motive for working with the Feds. Connors has his own moonshine business operating on the side. Reynolds is Gator, a bootlegger enlisted by the Treasury Department (or what Granny Clampett used to call "revenooers") to nab the corrupt (what else?) and bigoted Sheriff Connors, played by Ned Beatty, who had co-starred with Reynolds in Deliverance. "White lightning," of course, is another term for moonshine whiskey, the basis for this tale of backwoods intrigue and action. But the popularity of the films lay in their comic tone, playing the normally cliched elements cartoonishly, and in Reynolds' self-mocking machismo. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), and Hooper (1978) traded on some of the most blatant stereotypes of the South corrupt politicians and law enforcers, car chases, irascible outlaws, and sexy Daisy Duke-clad beauties. ![]() Often referred to as "redneck flicks," such films as W.W. He broke through to top movie stardom with Deliverance (1972), but his role as bootlegger Gator McKlusky in White Lightning (1973) set the tone for the films that kept him firmly in the superstar strata throughout the 1970s. Burt Reynolds had developed into a much in-demand actor since his start in the TV series Riverboat (1959-60), Gunsmoke (1962-65), and the title roles in Hawk(1966) and Dan August (1970-71).
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