| Buster and Billie | |
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Theatrical release poster. |
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| Directed by | Daniel Petrie Sidney Sheldon |
| Produced by | Ted Mann |
| Written by | Ron Bartron Ron Turbeville |
| Starring | Jan-Michael Vincent Joan Goodfellow |
| Music by | Al De Lory |
| Cinematography | Mario Tosi |
| Editing by | Paul LaMastra |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 21, 1974 January 28, 1975 March 24, 1975 September 17, 1976 |
| Running time | 100 mins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Buster and Billie (1974) is an American motion picture released by Columbia Pictures. The film was of the tragic romance/revenge film genres. It was directed by Daniel Petrie, whose credits include films such as Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981).
In the title roles were future Airwolf star Jan-Michael Vincent as Buster, and Joan Goodfellow as Billie. In supporting roles, Buster and Billie also featured Pamela Sue Martin of Dynasty fame as Buster's girlfriend Margie, and Robert Englund, who later shot to fame in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series as Freddy Kreuger, in a small role as Buster's friend, Whitey.
This film is also notable as one of the earliest American mainstream movies to have male frontal nudity.
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The film is set in a small Georgia town in 1948. It follows the adventures of Buster Lane (Jan-Michael Vincent), a handsome, popular high-school senior, who is engaged to be married to his high-school sweetheart Margie Hooks (Pamela-Sue Martin). He is the 'big man on campus' and the leader of his group of friends. Buster, though, is different from these other young men.
Buster's friends, being sexually repressed, often visit a girl from an underprivileged background named Billie-Jo Truluck (Joan Goodfellow) who dourly gives them what they want. In the meanwhile, Buster becomes disenchanted with Margie's refusal to have sex with him, and begins seeing Billie in secret.
In the beginning, he sees Billie just for sex, but eventually finds himself falling in love with her. Buster is so taken with Billie that he decides to break off his engagement with Margie to be with Billie. Billie finds another lease on life with Buster, and they are happy for the first time in their lives. Happiness for them, though, is short-lived.
Buster's friends are extremely jealous that they cannot have Billie for their own use anymore, and decide to teach Buster a lesson. They corner Billie one day when she is out, and when she refuses to submit to them, they rape and kill her in the heat of the moment. Buster eventually finds her dead, and is hysterical. He then goes to the pool hall where his friends are, with the guilt evident on the faces of the main perpetrators of the crime.
Enraged, Buster kills two of them, while injuring the other two. He is then put into jail for this, but is released. He rips up entire garden beds in the town, and takes these flowers to Billie's graveside in her memory.
Like all films, Buster and Billie has split many film critics on opposite sides. Leonard Maltin gave the film a *1/2 score, and said that it was a "blubbery account of high school romance in 1948 rural Georgia...[and that it] can't overcome cliched premise."[1] Other critics, such as Steven Scheuer, said that it was "an uneven but perceptive film" and that, in the lead roles, Vincent played his role "with strength and charm" while Goodfellow was "touching as the acquiescent town tramp."[2]
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