Main Cast: Beau Bridges, Hume Cronyn, Beverly D'Angelo, William Devane, George Dzundza
Release Year: 1981
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
In this involved send-up of two American icons -- the automobile and the tourist trap -- the tiny Florida town of Ticlaw strives desperately for success after it has been denied the most essential of all tourist amenities -- a freeway exit. The insane, and mostly successful, schemes of the mayor (William Devane) and other distinctly unbalanced citizens interrupt, often hilariously, the lives of various eccentric travellers forced into a place they never intended to be. Critics disagree violently on whether this is a neglected classic or sophomoric nonsense. The winning record of director (John Schlesinger) (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Cold Comfort Farm, etc.,) and first-class performances by William Devane, Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, Hume Cronyn, JessicaTandy and a plethora of great character actors -- not to mention the water-skiing elephant and the wild rhino -- argue that it's worth a look. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
Edwin O'Donovan - Art Director, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Benjamin Rosenberg - First Assistant Director, John Schlesinger - Director, Jim Clark - Editor, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Steve Dorff - Composer (Music Score), George Martin - Composer (Music Score), Ferdinando Scarfiotti - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Don Boyd - Producer, Gene Kirkwood - Producer, Howard W. Koch - Producer, Fritz Manes - Producer, Larry Jost - Sound/Sound Designer, Edward Clinton - Screenwriter
Honky Tonk Freeway is a comedy film, released in August 1981 by Universal Studios. The film's plot centers on the residents of a small, fictional Florida tourist town named Ticlaw, as they react to news that a new highway being constructed near their town will not include an exit for them (thus diminishing their tourism trade). It included a number of ongoing vignettes featuring various offbeat characters (a dysfunctional family vacationing in a motor home, an elderly couple who are retiring to Florida, a nymphomaniac waitress traveling with her deceased mother's ashes, a pair of none-too-bright bank robbers attempting to flee with their loot, a pair of traveling nuns), whose paths all converge in Ticlaw over the course of an evening.
This movie was filmed in the small central Florida town called Mount Dora.
