Main Cast: Roy Orbison, Sammy Jackson, Maggie Pierce, Joan Freeman, Lyle Bettger
Release Year: 1968
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
The must-be-seen-to-be-believed Fastest Guitar Alive offers singer Roy Orbison in his one and only movie starring role. Orbison plays Johnny Banner, a Confederate Spy who keeps a rifle hidden in his guitar. While on an espionage mission with partner Steve (Sammy Jackson), Johnny discovers that the war is over, and that now he and Steve are considered outlaws. Their many subsequent adventures include their involvement with dance-hall gals Flo (Maggie Pierce, co-star of the infamous TVer My Mother the Car) and Sue (Joan Freeman). Indicative of the general tone of seriousness in this film is the presence of veteran comedian Ben Lessy as a most urban-looking Indian. Though silly in the extreme, Fastest Guitar Alive is at least superficially better than most of the youth-oriented Sam Katzman productions of the period. And besides, you wouldn't want to pass up an opportunity to see Roy Orbison in his performing prime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
George W. Davis - Art Director, Merrill Pye - Art Director, Michael Moore - Director, Ben Lewis - Editor, Freddy Karger - Composer (Music Score), Roy Orbison - Composer (Music Score), W. Wallace Kelley - Cinematographer, Sam Katzman - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Joseph J. Stone - Set Designer, Robert Kent - Screenwriter
The Fastest Guitar Alive is a 1967MGMmotion picture starring singer Roy Orbison in his only starring role as an actor. A musical western, the story is set near the end of the American Civil War with Orbison portraying a Southern spy with a bullet-shooting guitar given the task of robbing gold bullion from the United States Mint in San Francisco in order to help finance the Confederacy's war effort.
The film features Orbison performing several original songs which appeared on his 1967 MGM record album of the same name.
