The setting of "Buster and Billie" is the rural part of the American South in the late 1940's, when normalcy met the post-war world. The movie starred Jan-Michael Vincent and Jean Goodfellow as unlikely lovers just finishing high school. Vincent plays Buster, a gutsy, no-nonsense model student who wants to follow his father in the farming trade. Goodfellow plays Billie, the dirt-poor lass from the wrong side of the tracks, who is the object of scorn to many a teenage boy, including the boys Buster hangs out with.
There is some excellent stand-out acting in this teen romance, from Pamela Sue Martin, who is marvelous as Buster's former flame to Robert Englund in his film debut as Whitey (long before he became Freddie Kreuger in "Nightmare on Elm Street"). Look out for Clifton James standout performance as Jake.
But the best scene is saved for last as the scene is split between the local sheriff and his people wondering about a series of petty crimes and Buster's movements of utter sorrow, but to explain more would ruin the mystery. Otherwise, if you find an uncut version, enjoy the fact that it was one of the first mainstream movies featuring full-frontal male nudity, something that was unheard of in 1974, six years after the death of the Hays' office. It earned its R rating and then some. But ladies everywhere got an eyeful of Jan-Michael Vincent in his nakedness! Daniel Petrie had some nerve letting that one through.
So for the story alone, it would deserve a DVD release or a remake. I was thinking, how about Josh Hutcherson, that young lady from "Hugo" and maybe Gavin Fink to play Whitey. Though the original was one of Petrie's masterstrokes as a filmmaker, along with "Lassie", which he directed two decades later. (The TV series was just ending in 1974 and Vincent actually had a recurring role on that classic series earlier in his acting career.)
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