Movie Ad of the Week: LOLLY-MADONNA AND THE TENNESSEE FEUD (1973)

MGM opened the excellent LOLLY-MADONNA XXX in New York on Wednesday, February 21, 1973. The next day, Vincent Canby of the Times, one of the few critics whose opinion could make or break a movie, gave LOLLY an undeserved thrashing that may have hastened its banishment to obscurity. Sadly, some 40 years later, his lazy and uninformed assessment can be Googled in five seconds while the movie itself remains nearly impossible to find in a watchable state.

When it arrived in Cleveland on April 6, 1973, LOLLY-MADONNA XXX was advertised as LOLLY-MADONNA AND THE TENNESSEE FEUD, with third-billed rising star Jeff Bridges promoted to top banana status over veterans Rod Steiger and Robert Ryan.

Season Hubley is credited as playing "Lolly Madonna" on the ad mats and one-sheets, but her character's name -- used throughout the film and listed in the pressbook as well as the closing credits -- is actually Roonie Gill. There is no Lolly Madonna.