Li'l Abner

1940 "Your Favorite Cartoon Alive on the Screen LAUGH with Li'l Abner Your Favorite cartoon character...in person on the SCREEN!"
4.9| 1h18m| NR| en
Details

Li'l Abner becomes convinced that he is going to die within twenty-four hours, so agrees to marry two different girls: Daisy Mae (who has chased him for years) and Wendy Wilecat (who rescued him from an angry mob). It is all settled at the Sadie Hawkins Day race.

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Reviews

Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
dallasryan This version of Li'l Abner brings you back to the roots of how some of the films were done at this time and how the screwball comedy was at this time i.e. Bringing Up Baby, etc. Li'l Abner will bring a smile to your face and there will be some good laughs along the way. Not the best of films, but definitely a fun one to see and to bring you back to the roots of what some films were like during this period. Worth seeing once for the enjoyment and nostalgia. Watch for Buster Keaton in his small role too.
arfdawg-1 The Plot.Li'l Abner becomes convinced that he is going to die within twenty-four hours, so agrees to marry two different girls: Daisy Mae (who has chased him for years) and Wendy Wilecat (who rescued him from an angry mob). It is all settled at the Sadie Hawkins Day race.The movie isn't as bad as some reviewers say. It's actually somewhat interesting to see the first renderings of some of these characters.A few giggles here and there and a notable appearance of Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.
gftbiloxi Al Capp's cartoon strip was so satirically acidic that he was constantly being threatened with suit by the public figures he parodied--and at least one, Joan Baez, actually took him to court. But viewers needn't expect much of Capp's celebrated wit in this 1940 cinematic take on the much-celebrated residents of Dogpatch, USA; more silly than clever and more embarrassing than entertaining, L'IL ABNER has been justly neglected for more than a half a century.Still, it does have a few charms, and most of these are among the cast. Director Albert S. Rogell was a workhorse of the silent era, and the film is crammed to overflowing with a host of silent actors taking one more shot at fame--with the great Buster Keaton the most celebrated name on the roster. Sad to say, they are largely wasted, but we're at least given a chance to see them once more, a decade after their stars faded.The most successful members of the cast are actually the younger players, with Jeff York (billed as Granville Owen) unexpectedly effective in actually looking the part of L'il Abner himself. Martha O'Driscoll is merely acceptable as Daisy Mae, but Billie Seward strikes all the right notes as the man-hungry Cousin Delightful. And now and then a moment "pops" enough for you to see a little of what made Capp's concepts so wickedly funny.The plot is standard Capp, but it lacks Capp's bite: Daisy Mae loves Abner, Cousin Delightful wants him for herself, and Abner prefers pork chops. In terms of production values, the film was very obviously done on the cheap, and Rogell's direction is hardly inspired: not only is the camera static, the pace is positively leaden. Fans of the original strip will probably find it a guilty pleasure, but even they will likely admit that this is Al Capp with both fangs pulled.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer
allegria_joy I grew up on this one, and it's one of the few that my family still agrees on as being hilarious and worthwhile.It's about a bunch of wonderfully stereotypical mountain people. The hero is Li'l Abner, a strapping big young man who eats "pork chops for' breakfast, pork chops for' dinner, and for' supper, mo' pork chops." To quote the opening song, "He's the biggest catch in Dog Patch." The entire plot revolves around the impending Sadie Hawkins race where eligible gals chase eligible guys to win husbands.The characters are what make it worth watching - Mammy Yokum, who stands about 4'7" and has a potato shaped nose and rules all with her inexorable will; Pappy Yokum, whose memory is balder than his bald head and who lives his life in happily forgetful delirium, punctuated by moments of terror brought on by his wife; Hairless Joe, who's basically just big and loud and stupid; Lonesome Polecat (brilliantly played by Buster Keaton), who's basically just weird and small and stupid; and several more. Not quite as quotable as some of the cult classics, but my dad and I regularly allude to some of the lines - "Look - it's Granny!" "I'se a-comin, Pansy, I'se awake!" Give this one a chance. It's somewhat slow, but worth it.