Synopsis
When a big TV crusader Melvin P. Thorpe threatens to expose the Chicken Ranch to public scandal and close it down, Miss Mona doesn't go down without a fight.
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Cast
- Burt ReynoldsSheriff Ed Earl Dodd
- Dolly PartonMona Stangley
- Dom DeLuiseMelvin P. Thorpe
- Charles DurningGovernor of Texas
- Jim NaborsDeputy Fred
- Robert MandanSenator Wingwood
- Lois NettletonDulcie Mae
- Theresa MerrittJewel
- Noah Beery Jr.Edsel
- Raleigh BondMayor
Recommendations
- 70
Variety
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is just about everything it's meant to be - a couple of diverting hours in the dark. Rollicking, good-natured, a bit spicy and with just enough heart to avoid seeming totally synthetic. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Entertainments like this are what Hollywood is said to be all about: larger than life personalities redeeming material smaller than a breadbox. [23 July 1982] - 60
The New Yorker
Dimples, wigs, bazooms, and all, Dolly Parton is phenomenally likable as the madam; her whole personality is melodious, and her acting isn't bad at all, even though the director, Colin Higgins, has made her chest the focal point of her scenes. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
If they ever give Dolly her freedom and stop packaging her so antiseptically, she could be terrific. But Dolly and Burt and Whorehouse never get beyond the concept stage in this movie. - 40
Time Out
The dialogue is Texas crude, the sentiment Bible Belt coy, and the songs conveyor-belt Broadway: stale air on a G-string. - 40
Newsweek
The singin' and dancin' ain't much to write home about; you'd reckon that some $30 million would buy you somethin' with more pizzazz than an Amarillo road-show version of Oklahoma. Reckon again. [26 July 1982, p.79] - 37
Washington Post
You're obliged to take your fun where you can find it during this coyly coarse-minded, near-wreck of a musical, and there's precious little to be found watching the costars gather moss in each other's uneasy company. [23 July 1982, p.D3] - 30
The New York Times
This film lacks even the inadvertently buoyant awfulness that makes some bad movies fun. It's just plain dull.
