I don't know why "Anonymous" from Atlanta hated the 1985 version so much. I saw both the 1958 version and the 1985 version, and I thought both were good in their respective ways, although I admit that I liked the 1958 version better. William Russ (Jody Varner) appeared with Don Johnson (Ben Quick) in Miami Vice, and James Gammon (Billy Quick) appeared with Johnson in Nash Bridges. The casting choice that I liked least was Cybill Shepherd (Eula Varner). She played the part well enough, but I'm just not a Cybill Shepherd fan. The closest I ever came to liking her was in her role as Maddie Hayes opposite Bruce Willis as David Addison in the TV series Moonlighting. I admit to having been a Miami Vice (1984-1989) fan. That's probably why I thought this 1985 version with Johnson in the lead was fairly good. He's a good enough actor that he gets the job done, and I wish I looked like him, that is, when he was still relatively young. It wasn't fun watching him age in the final season of Nash Bridges (1996-2001). Wrinkles are OK, but when the hairline and the waistline start to go, it's time to start avoiding the camera. What he absolutely had to have was hair replacement and a trainer to get him back into shape, but at 51 years of age, he didn't get either one, so the series wasn't renewed for a seventh season (the first season was comprised of 8 episodes in the spring of 1996, seasons 2-6 extending from the fall of 1996 to the spring of 2001). Anyway, I thought that the 1985 version of The Long Hot Summer was a lot better than what "Anonymous" from Atlanta indicated. I never saw the 1965 version.
Review of The Long Hot Summer
