In
Deliverance, a scene depicts
Billy Redden playing it opposite
Ronny Cox, who joins him on guitar and ends up having a guitar vs.
banjo duel. Redden plays Lonnie, a
mentally challenged,
inbred but extremely gifted banjo player. Redden could not play the banjo and the director thought his hand movements looked unconvincing. A local musician, Mike Addis, was brought in to depict the movement of the boy's left hand. Addis hid behind Redden, with his left arm in Redden's shirt sleeve. Careful camera angles kept Addis out of frame and completed the illusion. The music itself was dubbed from the recording made by Weissberg and Mandell and was not played by the actors. Two young musicians, Ron Brentano and Mike Russo, had originally been signed to play their adaptation for the film, but instead it was performed by Weissberg and Mandell. "Dueling Banjos" was arranged and performed for the film by
Eric Weissberg and
Steve Mandell and was included on its soundtrack. When Arthur "Boogie" Smith was not acknowledged as the composer by the filmmakers, he sued and eventually won, receiving songwriting credit as well as royalties. The song was used in the theatrical trailer of
What About Bob? and briefly used in a TV commercial for the 2003
Saturn Vue. ==Chart performance==