Li'l Abner (1959)

So much average

Fantastic!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I saw this show on stage in San Francisco when it was on a national tour in 1959. I had been a movie fan since 1940 and a theatre lover since 1950 I saw the movie with my wife later that year having heard the original Broadway cast recording numerous times previously. Obviously we love the show and the movie came as close as possible to capture the stage production. Having read the comics all my earlier life I was familiar with Al Capp and his satire. There were only a few transfers of hit shows from Broadway to movies in that era which included original cast members. Two I enjoyed and own copies on DVD or VCR are NEW FACES OF 1952 and WHERE'S CHARLEY?. Gerald Bordman in American MUSICAL THEATRE A CHRONICLE (1978) says it ran almost 700 performances on Broadway in the late fifties. I certainly understand that movies do not always please viewers but the great majority of reviewers on this site are enthusiastic and have very ably described the many qualities which are apparent in this production. The success of this musical undoubtedly paved the way for the creation of ANNIE.

Abner, Mammy and Pappy Yokum, Daisy Mae, Marryin' Sam and all those other hillbilly characters are musically reunited for the film version of the hit 1956 Broadway musical. The moonshine is flowing, Mammy Yokum has just finished a batch of her muscle building Yokum Berry Tonic (backwoods steroids!), and Pappy Yokum is jumpin' around more excited than a mating grasshopper. The result is a rootin', tootin' musical confectionery delight.Dog Patch USA has been chosen by the Pentagon as the most unnecessary spot on Earth and has the dubious honor of being made a bomb testing site. But when Mammy Yokum's tonic (which turns wimps into the Incredible Hulk) is discovered to be the most wonderful find since Television, Dog Patch is saved, for now.... Greedy General Bullmoose (Howard St. John) finds out that Li'l Abner will be the heir to the Yokum Berry Tonic fortune, and arranges for his mistress (the apply named Appassionata Von Climax) to catch Abner in the Sadie Hawkins Day race, breaking Daisy Mae's heart. Mammy and Pappy Yokum sense evil afoot and join forces with Marryin' Sam to reunited Daisy Mae with her beloved not-so-dumb hunk. The handsome Peter Palmer reprises his role as Abner, showing off a beautiful tenor singing voice, while Joe E. Marks ("Peter Pan") and Billie Hayes ("Puffnstuff's" Witchipoo) are his loving, if unlikely parents. Leslie Parrish makes a charming Daisy Mae, while the lovable Stubby Kaye ("Guys and Dolls") steals every scene he is in as Marryin' Sam. Years before cutting in front of Shelley Winters to climb up the upside down Christmas tree in "The Poseidon Adventure", Stella Stevens was Ms. Von Climax, while that "Too Wong Foo" doll, Julie Newmar, is unforgettably silent (but fortunately not invisible) as Stuppefyin' Jones, Dog Patch's "secret weapon". Bern Hoffman as Earthquake McGoon and Al Nesor as Evil Eye Fleagle are others worth mentioning. The score includes such riotous production numbers as "Jubilation T. Cornpone" (the town hero that helped the South loose the civil war) and "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands", a song that remains quite appropriate more than 50 years later. Daisy Mae gets to sing two lovely duets, "I'm Past My Prime" (with Kaye) and "Namely You" (with Palmer)."Li'l Abner" has only had a brief concert revival in New York, so a new production of it is long overdue. The movie is one of the most faithful renditions of a Broadway show and a lot of fun from start to finish. Everybody gets moments to shine, and sharp viewers will have to look underneath the country bumpkin attire to spot Valarie Harper ("Rhoda") and Beth Howland (Vera on TV's "Alice") in chorus parts. And yes, that is Paramount's top box office draw of 1959, Jerry Lewis, in a memorable walk-on. The cartoonish filming and obvious backdrop set totally work, and remind me of 1954's "Red Garters" which had a similar theme and an artistic approach to its use of somewhat surrealistic sets. Michael Kidd's choreography is right up there with other outdoorsy musicals such as "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" and "Oklahoma!".

Lil Abner ran as a comic strip for over 20 years before being converted into a long running Broadway musical. The original production had Peter Palmer in the lead with Edie Adams instead of Leslie Parrish being Daisy Mae. It debuted in 1956 and ran for two years.Our government has determined Nevada with its contribution of Las Vegas to our culture should no longer be a site of atomic testing. Dogpatch with its 100% unemployment should be. So everyone's to pack up and leave in a week.Needless to say the residents of Dogpatch who Al Capp created are not ready to leave, but they are blindly patriotic. They have to find some thing worth salvaging in Dogpatch.They hit on it with Mammy Yoakum's Yoakumberry tonic which she has been feeding a spoonful of to Lil Abner since his birth. He's grown up big and strong with a soloflex physique.Let's just say that there's a problem with Yoakumberry tonic. Mammy Yoakum may have hit upon steroid abuse 30 years ahead of time. That leads to all the complications, matrimonial and political, contained in the plot.I liked the production and the surreal sets, very much like Warren Beatty's production of Dick Tracy later on, another cartoon character. I didn't like the fact that the best song of the Gene DePaul-Johnny Mercer score was left out of the film. It's called Love in a Home and Bing Crosby did a fine record of it back in 1956.Peter Palmer had he come along even 10 years earlier might have given folks like Howard Keel and Gordon MacRae competition for musical leads in film. As it was, musicals were slowly dying out as they became to expensive to produce.The one who got the most attention on Broadway and Hollywood was Stubby Kaye as Marrying Sam. DePaul and Mercer wrote a wonderful satirical song called Jubilation T. Cornpone about a less than able southern general who was proud to call Dogpatch his hometown. Kaye was a great performer and fortunate are we that in Guys and Dolls and Lil Abner we have his two best known performances preserved.By the way, the character General Bullmoose who Howard St. John played, is a spoof of Eisenhower's flannelmouth Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson. He was the President of General Motors and during his confirmation made that comment that came out "what was good for General Motors was good for the USA." He was the perfect living caricature of a blowhard businessman and Al Capp had a field day with him. Hence the choral song What's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA.Dogpatch may have been useless, but it's sure a nice place to visit.

Li'l Abner is certainly not a great musical, but it sure is fun. The color on the new DVD is outrageous and just garish enough to bring the comic book quality of the proceedings delightfully to life. (The transfer is sharp as they come as well!) Probably the best part of the film is that from scene one you know that you are watching a filmed stage play. There is no attempt to "open it up" and make the film realistic, and, in that way, we have the closest we can come to what the Broadway edition must have looked like. Yes, some of the topicality is now flat as are some of the jokes, but with Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer and Stella Stevens in the cast, who cares. Singin' In The Rain it ain't, but taken on its own, Li'l Abner is a delightful couple of hours.