Themes: Small-Town Life, Unlikely Heroes, Fighting the System
Main Cast: Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Howard St. John, Julie Newmar
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
1959's Li'l Abner was adapted from the hit 1956 Broadway musical--which, in turn, was inspired by the satirical comic strip by Al Capp. Peter Palmer recreates his Broadway role as Li'l Abner Yokum, the handsome, muscle-bound, muscle-brained leading hillbilly of Dogpatch, USA. The citizens of Dogpatch are in an uproar because their ramshackle community has been designated the "most useless" town in America, and therefore a prime candidate for an atomic bomb testing site. At first, the Dogpatchers consider their least-desirable status a great honor, but then they despair upon realizing that they'll have to vacate the premise before the annual girl-chases-boy Sadie Hawkins Day race. Together with his Mammy (Billie Hayes) and Pappy (Joe E. Marks), Li'l Abner is dispatched to Washington DC, to argue that Dogpatch has some vital significance: after all, only in Dogpatch can one partake of the Yokumberry Tonic, the source of Abner's super strength. Shifty billionaire General Bullmoose (Howard St. John) wants that Yokumberry tonic for his own devices, and to that end dispatches his lady friend Appasionatta von Climax (Stella Stevens) to Dogpatch to catch Li'l Abner during the Sadie Hawkins race and thus secure the mountain boy's cooperation via marriage. Li'l Abner's erstwhile girl friend Daisy Mae Scragg (Leslie Parrish) would likewise like to snare Abner in the race, but Appasionata wins, thanks to the squirrelly Evil Eye Fleegle (Al Nesor), whose "triple whammy" paralyzes Abner just inches before the finish line. If you think all this is unbelievable, wait till you see how the story resolves itself. Featured in the cast is Stubby Kaye as Marryin' Sam, who leads the hillbilly chorus in the musical's best number, "Jubilation T. Corpone". Other Johnny Mercer-Gene de Paul tunes carried over from the Broadway version of Li'l Abner are "A Typical Day," "If I Had My Druthers," "Namely You," "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands," "Past My Prime," "Put 'Em Back (The Way They Wuz)" and "The Matrimonial Stomp."The film is staged in the same broad, caricatured manner as the play, which only adds to the fun. An earlier, unrelated movie adaptation of Li'l Abner, filmed in 1940, is best forgotten, as is a series of lukewarm Abner cartoons produced by Screen Gems in the late forties. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Al Capp's comic strip Li'l Abner was phenomenally popular in its prime, roughly the equivalent of Doonesbury in the 1970s and 1980s -- and, like that later strip, frequently taking on a wide variety of political issues. While the film version includes some political commentary -- particularly in "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands" and in the use of atom bomb testing as a plot device -- the real emphasis is on creating a "live" version of the strip's cartoon world, which it does remarkably well. Garishly colorful and sprightly, Melvin Frank's Dogpatch seems to have leapt right off the four-color funnies page. The script is silly but endearingly so, and the fine Johnny Mercer-Gene de Paul songs perfectly capture Capp's worldview. Peter Palmer apparently was born to play Li'l Abner, having been blessed with a physiognomy which perfectly matches the strip's character. As a bonus, he has an easy, agreeable way with a song and is comfortable with the iffy Dogpatch lingo. Leslie Parrish is a charming Daisy Mae, and Bille Hayes a perfect Mammy Yokum. Stubby Kaye is especially good as Marryin' Sam, creating quite a commotion when his distinctive belt rips into "Jubilation T. Cornpone." Abner is too slight to be a classic, but it has a goofily endearing quality all its own. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Stella Stevens - Appassionata Von Climax; Billie Hayes - Mammy Yokum; Joe E. Marks - Pappy Yokum; Al Nesor - Evil Eye Fleagle; Robert Strauss - Romeo Scragg; William Lanteau - Available Jones; Ted Thurston - Sen. Jack S. Phogbound; Alan Carney - Mayor Dawgmeat; Stanley Simmonds - Rasmussen T. Finsdale; Bern Hoffman - Earthquake McGoon; Diki Lerner - Lonesome Polecat; Joe Ploski - Hairless Joe
Some music was adapted directly from the Broadway production, but the original portions of the motion picture score were written and conducted by Nelson Riddle and Joseph J. Lilley, which earned them an Oscar nomination for Best Score in 1960 and earned Riddle a Grammy nomination for Best Soundtrack Album. The movie was released on December 11, 1959 by Paramount Pictures.
Almost every major character in the movie was played by the same person who held that role in the original Broadway cast. Notable exceptions are Daisy Mae (played by Edie Adams on Broadway) and Appassionata von Climax (played on stage by Tina Louise).
It's a "typical day" in Dogpatch, U. S. A., a hillbilly town where Abner Yokum lives with his parents. Mammy Yokum insists on giving Abner his daily dose of "Yokumberry tonic," although he is grown. He has a crush on Daisy Mae Scragg (although he resists marrying her) and she on him; Abner's rival for her affections is the World's Dirtiest Rassler, Earthquake McGoon.
Sadie Hawkins Day is approaching. On this day the "girls chase the men and marries whomstever [sic] they catches," as Senator Jack S. Phogbound puts it. However, the citizens of Dogpatch find out that their town has been declared the most unnecessary place in the country--and will be the target of an atom bomb, since the nuclear testing site near Las Vegas is allegedly spoiling things for the wealthy gamblers there.
The Dogpatch people at first are pleased and excited about leaving Dogpatch forever. But they change their minds when Mammy Yokum points out some of the horrible, awful customs they'll have to adapt to, like regular bathing and (worst of all) going to work for a living. So the now anxious-to-remain Dogpatchers try to muster something necessary about their town to save it. But the government scientist in charge of the bomb testing, Dr. Rasmussen T. Finsdale, rejects all of their suggestions. However, Mammy brings forth her "Yokumberry Tonic", the substance that has made Abner the handsome, muscular, strapping specimen that he is. The only tree in the whole world that grows Yokumberries exists in the Yokum's front yard. Thus, the town of Dogpatch will become "indispensable" to the outside world.
Meanwhile, a greedy business magnate named General Bullmoose covets the tonic as well, since he could market it (as "Yoka-Cola," he tells Abner) and uses his wiles to get the tonic dishonestly. This involves Appassionata von Climax, Bullmoose's mistress. He cooks up a scheme to get Ms. von Climax to marry Abner, after which Li'l Abner would be killed and von Climax would become owner of the tonic, "by community property" [sic], and turn it over to Bullmoose. To begin the plan, Bullmoose orders von Climax to enter the race on Sadie Hawkins Day. She catches Li'l Abner (with help from Evil Eye Fleegle) and Daisy Mae ends up heartbroken. But then Daisy, Mammy, Pappy and Marryin' Sam discover (through Mammy's "Conjurin' Power") what General Bullmoose is up to; and Daisy promises to marry McGoon if he helps them to save Abner's life. McGoon agrees, and rounds up practically everyone in Dogpatch to go to Washington on the rescue mission.
McGoon and the other Dogpatchers disrupt the society party at which Abner is supposed to drink a toast as a prelude to suffering the whammy--and the whammy-giver, Evil Eye Fleegle, says it won't work unless the subject has drunk liquor. So Bullmoose calls for a champagne toast. Fleegle is about to strike with his truth whammy, and McGoon deflects the whammy with a silverplatter--and the whammy hits Bullmoose, who confesses his scheme to a policeman.
Meanwhile, the Yokumberry tonic is a failure. Although it made the subjects healthy and muscular, they don't care about romance, to their wives' chagrin, (this also explains why Abner has resisted marrying Daisy for so long). Back at Dogpatch--with the tonic rejected, the bombing is on again--The wedding of McGoon and Daisy Mae is on; Romeo Scragg and his kin are armed to keep Marryin' Sam from stalling. But Daisy Mae shows McGoon the rest of her Scragg relatives (including "Priceless and Liceless" Scragg, and the "Bar Harbor Scragg's" - who've been "barred from every harbor in the Country") and he backs out. Dr. Finsdale returns and orders the wedding stopped in order to evacuate. Pappy Yokum and some of the other Dogpatchers start to pull down an equestrianstatue of Jubilation T. Cornpone (the Town's Founder) from a tall pedestal, claiming they won't leave without it. A stone tablet falls, and it turns out to carry an inscription ordered by Abraham Lincoln, who has declared the city of Dogpatch a "National Shrine" because of Cornpone's incompetence as a Confederate General. Abner points out "You can't bomb a national shrine" and Finsdale relents, cancelling the bombing and leaving Abner and Daisy free to marry.
