You won't be disappointed!

Lack of good storyline.

Best movie ever!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Currently I must watch an old VHS copy as Paramount's DVD is currently "out of print" except for a few overpriced new & used collector's copies on Amazon. In order to completely enjoy this movie, you have to be from the era when "Li'l Abner" was a popular comic strip. Al Capp, the cartoonist, was always controversial. One of his story lines involved a blue frozen Russian "girl" who was deemed too "sexy" for family newspapers! This is a cute, innocent version and it stars most of the Broadway Cast, so it is very well done. The songs are fun and memorable. The dance numbers, from the same choreographer as "Seven Brides", are fun and fantastic. Plain and simple: if you like the material, you like the movie. It makes fun of the U.S. Government ("The Country's in the Very Best of Hands") The Hillbilly "code",promiscuity, and youth ("I'm Past My Prime"). Minor appearances by Julie Newmar as "the secret weapon" and even Jerry Lewis in a cameo. Leslie Parish (Daisy Mae) and Stubby Kaye (Marryin' Sam) are outstanding, as are Li'l Abner and his parents, as portrayed by Peter Palmer, Joe E. Marks (Pappy) and Billie Hayes (Mammy). The story centers around the "Sadie Hawkins Day Race" and Daisy Mae's "powerful" love for Li'l Abner. The "Society Party" scene is hilarious. It also makes great sport of big business, as "General Bullmoose" spoofs GM. But Leonard Maltin doesn't like it, so he only gives it 2&1/2 stars. It's right up there with Robin William's "Popeye" which also is not beloved by everyone. I'm waiting for a new DVD release, which will probably only happen if there is a Broadway revival.

I first knew about this (apart from Leslie Halliwell’s Film Guide) via its poster in a bulky scrapbook of my father’s containing adverts from the time such films were released in Malta. It’s never been shown in my neck of the woods and, therefore, I had to wait till I got hold of the DVD to check it out; despite not being a Musicals fan and the unappetizing backwoods milieu of the narrative, I’d always been interested in it – being based on a comic strip, it was bound to be stylized and filled with colorful characters (with equally descriptive names).The songs are pretty good (one of the best numbers is the girls’ plea to turn their men from narcissistic bodybuilders – including future “Euro-Cult” stalwart Gordon Mitchell! – back into uncouth but amenable country-folk) – though, once again, the dance sequences (choreographed by Michael Kidd) go on too long and cause the almost two-hour film to drag. As I said in my review of the earlier and lesser straight 1940 version, the plot is much more elaborate this time around – not only do we get an attempt to evacuate the community to make way for A-Bomb tests (a nice touch of topicality) but Abner, Marryin’ Sam (Stubby Kaye) and later many of the people of Dogpatch go to Washington to present the Government with an essential homegrown product (the town had been deemed “the most useless in the U.S.A.”) and then to save the naïve Abner from the clutches of megalomaniac General Bullmoose (Howard St. John).Sexuality is even more to the fore here – with several great-looking and scantily-clad ladies (Leslie Parrish as Daisy Mae, Carmen Alvarez as Moonbeam McSwine, Julie Newmar as Stupefyin’ Jones and, best of all, Stella Stevens as Bullmoose’s moll Appassionata von Climax!). Incidentally, the loutish Earthquake McGoon is less of a grotesque this time around; Abner’s parents, though, still look like they belong on another planet – also, Robert Strauss (very popular around this time) turns up under heavy (make that filthy) make-up as Daisy Mae’s opportunistic close relative, whereas Jerry Lewis does a very brief uncredited cameo as a dopey-looking character called Itchy McRabbit! By the way, just as RED GARTERS (1954; a viewing of which preceded this), had characters constantly referring to “The Code Of The West”, the people of Dogpatch live by “The Code Of The Hills”…

All right, so Al Capp's satire is dated half a century later. It's still one of the most thoroughly enjoyable musicals ever adapted from Broadway.Dogpatch, USA has been determined by the government to be the most useless place in the country and therefore a suitable place to conduct nuclear testing. So the bizarre inhabitants have to move unless they can find a reason to stop the bombing.I admit to being old enough to remember the original comic strip, so I'm probably biased. But lively musical numbers like "Jubilation T. Cornpone" and "Put 'em back the Way They Wuz" elevate this above standard Broadway translations.If you like musicals and great choreography, check this one out!

This fun musical is a treat to watch. It's clever and silly and exuberant. It is filled with great musical number and actually has a fairly decent plot. And of course, it has my favorite things in it: singing, dancing and a happy ending! There are a number of memorable performances. I mean, who is going to forget Billie Hayes Mammy Yokum declaring "I has spoken!", or Epassionata Von Climax's (Stella Stevens)mantra "What's in it for me?" The supporting roles were all so colorful and wonderful (I still laugh every time Evil Eye Fleagle scurries into a scene!) And we must not forget one of the best non-speaking roles ever, Stupifying Jones (Julie Newmarz).So if you want to enjoy an almost perfect musical with a few genuine belly laughs along the way, then this is the musical for you!