‘Cadillac Jack’ Rides Down a Well-Worn Country Road

Lyrics for a country tune, inspired by Clint Black’s appearance on CBS tonight in “Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack”:

Gave some guys a ride in my shiny Cadillac car,

Now I look at life through a row of jail bars.

Oh, I had to leave my wife, and my precious son,

‘Cause those guys had been out killin’ with their blasted gun.

That’s my story, my tale of woe,

Oh, c’mon and share it; watch my TV show.

Country star Black makes what is being billed as his debut as a “dramatic actor” opposite his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, in this movie about a rodeo champion framed for murder. It’s unremarkable TV fare: not bad, not good; just a means to while away an evening. But Black’s charisma helps hitch it up a notch.

Black’s interest in the real-life “Cadillac” Jack Favor has already generated the songs “Cadillac Jack Favor” (added to last year’s greatest hits disc) and “Still Holding On” (on his current “Nothin’ but the Taillights”), and prompted the movie’s development, in turn. The songs, of course, are included in the TV project, which was written by John Miglis and directed by David Burton Morris.

In its best moments, this show becomes a study of strength--of a man who breaks broncs for a living but won’t let himself be broken by injustice, and of a family with love enough to withstand truly awful times. Unfortunately, the movie also lapses into tired formulas (prison fights and tough guys ganging up on a guy they’re eyeing as a “punk”), as well as sucker-punching viewers with such weepy lines as the wife’s “Oh, baby, I just want us to wake up from this nightmare” and the son’s “Is he ever comin’ back?”

Black--who has appeared as himself on a couple of sitcoms and had a cameo in the feature film “Maverick”--makes Cadillac Jack a man of easygoing charm and surpassing decency. And Hartman Black, as Jack’s wife, is the kind of woman forever extolled in country songs: a beautiful gal who, in her own way, is as strong as her man.

This show probably won’t win any Emmys, but it may well have you cryin’ in your beer.

* “Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack” airs at 9 tonight on CBS (Channel 2). The network has rated it TV-PG-V (may be unsuitable for younger children, with an advisory about moderate violence).