This is How Movies Should Be Made

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

By the time LI'L ABNER went into production, Al Capp's comic strip of the same name had been running for about six years and was well on its way of becoming a household name. Even so, the idea of putting Dogpatch to life on the silver screen was not as inevitable as one might think. While other popular comic strips of the day had made it to Hollywood already (Blondie, Bringing Up Father and The Katzenjammer Kids being some examples), the task of transforming real-life actors into representatives of the slightly grotesque Dogpatch-universe obviously was of another level. However, from a visual point of view the result is reasonably successful; it truly looks as if we've been granted a visit into the authentic li'l town. On other points, however, the film is hit-and-miss; mostly the latter.Capp himself is given credit as story writer, although his actual contributions to the script may have been sparse. However, on the surface the premise resembles a typical Li'l Abner daily-strip adventure of the time. Abner thinks he's poisoned after eating some old, no-good mustard, and is determined to do a last good deed by "making love" to Daisy Mae, who adores him as much as ever ("making love" in Dogpatch is, of course, another term for kissing). As it turns out, Abner awakens "not daid" after all, very much to his dismay, as he's promised to marry no less than two girls the following noon (one being Daisy). It is decided that Abner is henceforth "resarved" for Daisy and the other girl in the upcoming Sadie Hawkins Day Race...may the best girl win.It's apparent that the film's director, Albert Rogell, understood the importance of transforming Capp's character designs onto the silver screen through the actors, in order to make this project reasonably credible; it also seems likely that actors Jeff York (Abner, billed as Granville Owen), Martha O'Driscoll (Daisy Mae), Mona Ray (Pansy Yokum), Johnnie Morris (Lucifer Yokum) and the rest of the principal performers did their share of research on beforehand. The make-up alone does not make the resemblance; facial expressions, timing and over-the-top voices are all of a very "Dogpatchesque" kind, in lack of a better word. A special mention also goes to former giant of silent comedy Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat, a performance which seems to be directly responsible for this film being so easily accessible on the video market today.However, despite the visually successful incarnations, LI'L ABNER does essentially remain a curiosity piece, certainly of most amusement to people well acquainted with the many references from Capp's strip. And it's not a guarantee that even viewers familiar with the strip will find all that much merriment here. The first time I watched it, now several years ago, I had only read a little of the strip, making this film a rather confusing (not amoozin') experience. However, since then I've become a Li'l Abner die-hard, so when I gave Columbia's adaptation another try recently, it turned out more comprehensible, and maybe slightly more enjoyable. People giving the film a try just for the sake of Keaton's performance, like I did at first, will hardly see more in it than a bizarre B-film comedy without much sense. It doesn't help matters that the direction appears like a rush-job on some instances, and furthermore that the prints currently in circulation are in less than neat condition; the last shot in the film is confusing, and in fact I suspect that a scene is missing. The script is equally indifferent; none of Capp's satirical talent has been incorporated, and the humor generally relies on rather obvious gags and punch-lines, though on some occasions it may be fun to recognize the odd traits and phrases of the main characters.Capp is said to have been quite disappointed with the film, and understandably so. Apart from a few equally forgettable animated shorts, nearly twenty years would pass before Li'l Abner was brought onto the silver screen again (this time somewhat more satisfyingly). As for this 1940-version, as a curiosity-piece it's worth checking out to die-hard fans of the strip, but newcomers should spend their time hunting for re-printings of the strip instead.

I am sure that nowadays the Li'l Abner comic strip loses a lot in translation. Its popularity over the years is one of those things that people today can't really understand. So, from the outset this weird little film has a big strike against it--especially because, by comparison, "The Beverly Hillbillies" is downright sophisticated.The film is set in the rustic village of Dogpatch--home of Li'l Abner and his kin. Oddly, Abner himself and his determined love interest, Daisy Mae, look relatively normal despite their clothes. But, as for most of the other major characters, they are, to put it bluntly, a group of freaks. Underneath tons of makeup and prosthetics, his parents and a few of the townsfolk look more like extras from the movie FREAKS than anything else! It's all rather creepy and comical. Sure, they did look a lot like the comic strip characters as well, but they just made me feel a bit repulsed.As for the film, there's a threadbare plot about Daisy Mae and Wendy Wilecat both wanting to get hitched to Abner. However, this plot doesn't even begin until late in the film. Instead, it's just a series of "comical" vignettes--most of which were never funny and only a few of which the audience might have laughed at in 1940. It's all rather sad seeing actors like Buster Keaton stuck in supporting roles, though for some of the old-time silent comedians (such as Chester Conklin and Al St. John), they are buried under so much makeup, wigs and prosthetics that you can't tell it's them--something I assume they felt grateful for when the film debuted.Overall, a one-joke film that is creepy and hard to watch from start to finish. The only positive value you might have is to use it to insult Southerners (and in particular, people from Arkansas and Tennessee)--but that would seem awfully cruel...unless you really, really hate them.

I was pleasantly surprised watching this comedy for a number of reasons. First, it was not as low budget and amateurish as I expected. It was actually a quite respectable B movie with make-up, sets, stunts and camera-work that matched the level of W.C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy features of the time.Second, Buster Keaton's short role prefigured the third banana roles he would play in the American International Beach Movies of the 1960's. His on-screen time is less than five minutes, still, I suspect he had a lot more to do with the production of the movie than his bit part would indicate. The gags have a Keatonesque quality. For example the ending scenes of the women chasing men are reminiscent of the ending scenes in his "Seven Chances." The world of Dogpatch has a self contained, parody of the intellectual world quality, as does many of the comedic worlds created by Keaton (See his "Three Ages" for example.The humor in the movie foreshadows the hillbilly humor of the 1960's television series, "The Beverly Hillbillies." A recent Lucille Ball biog movie suggested that Keaton had played a major part in the success of the 1950's television series "I Love Lucy." If Keaton did play a role in designing some of the gags in this movie, one might suggest that Keaton was in some sense responsible for a great deal of the successful comedies of the 1950's and 1960's.On the other hand, the producers might have hired them only because they liked his silent film work and he might not have had any input to the film other than his two or three days on set in his bit part. I wonder if anybody else has any information about the role Keaton played in this still charming movie.

OK, so this is as hokey as they come, but really sort of enjoyable. Jeff York as Li'l Abner is good, and Martha O'Driscoll as Daisy Mae is beautiful, so how can you go wrong? This film spends about the first 30 minutes establishing the locations and characters, and the final 43 minutes resolving the (thin) plot structure that revolves around both a Sadie Hawkins day race and Earthquake McGoon's capture and subsequent escape. The final 10 minutes are really fast paced with Wendy Wildcat and Daisy chasing after poor L'il Abner as he attempts to evade marriage. Hey, not a classic, but not bad either.