Bad Charleston Charlie

As a grad student at the U. of Illinois, I worked "craft service" and got up at 4 a.m. to have coffee on the location for the cast & crew. Then, when they shot the march of the KKK, I was put in a hood (like the above commentator) and was part of the cast. I never saw the film. My brother and father saw it in its exceedingly brief theatrical release in small town Illinois. They agreed it was the worst film they'd ever seen. But I'm still dying to see it. I remember Kevin Thomas in the LA Times reviewed the film and began it with the classic line "Bad Charleston Charlie is not only bad, it's terrible." I did get to meet John Carridine and shake his incredibly gnarled arthritic hand. Ivan Nagy, director, and Ross Hagen, star, had no idea what they were doing making the film, as far as I could tell. They did manage to get farmers from around central Illinois to put up the money for this film. But I enjoyed being around the making of a pseudo-Hollywood film.