Moonshine Mountain

Doug Martin, a "society" western-mountain singing star on television, goes back to the Carolina hills to get some authenticity to his over-citified blandness. There he meets up with the Carpenters and the Bashams, two families who, with Sheriff Asa Potter, own a gigantic moonshine-still which keeps the local countryside soaked with "white lightning." He also falls in love with Laura Carpenter, much to the chagrin of his society fiancee, Della Lawrence. Della accepts the invitation by Sheriff Potter to go out to the pond with him, then laughs at him and hacks him off to the point where he kills her. Potter also has the half-human, ape-like Luther Basham working for him, mainly killing federal revenue agents, and then throwing their bodies in the still and laughing as they bubble away. HGL has a heavy hand when it comes to comedy. It gets to the point where Potter sees a need to kill off both families and, to overcome Luther's objections to killing his own family, Potter tells him he can save and keep Mary Lou, Laura's half-witted sister. Mary Lou objects, using an ax to make her point.