Li'l Abner (1940)

Cast:

Jeff York is Li'l Abner Yokum
Martha O'Driscoll is Daisy Mae Scraggs
Mona Ray is Pansy 'Mammy' Yokum
Johnnie Morris is Lucifer 'Pappy' Yokum
Buster Keaton is Lonesome Polecat

What the box says:

Al Capp's 'Lil Abner' cartoon has been delighting funnies readers since 1934. In this, the first of Lil Abner's filmed adventures, Al Capp's characters come vidily to life, with all of the strip's most notable personalities on board, including Lil Abner (Jeff York, billed as Granville Owen), Daisy Mae (Martha O'Driscoll), Mammy and Pappy Yokum, and the rest of the quirky gang. It's Sadie Hawkins day, and a prime opportunity for the women of Dogpatch to snare a husband. With not one, or two but three ladies in pursuit, it's all Lil Abner can do to avoid getting ensnared. Lil Abner stands as a fitting celluloid tribute of Al Capp.

Plot:

In Dogpatch, Daisy Mae gets up. Her Granny wants her to get married. However, Daisy Mae only has eyes for Lil Abner.

Elsewhere, Lil Abner gets his chores done and later runs into Lonesome Polecat, and Hairless Joe.

I'm not a Heckawi and don't where F-Troop is...

That can't be a song "Get a haircut and get a real job".

They learn of the gigantic reward of $25 for the capture of Earthquake McGoon.

Daisy Mae’s cousin, Delightful is swarmed with guys, stops by to pay a visit to her cousin. Daisy swoons over Lil Abner. Following him and pretending to sprain her ankle, Lil Abner helps her walk with him. Some guy teases Lil Abner about having a girlfriend which causes him to leave Daisy behind. Delightful decides to help Daisy win Lil Abner.

At the general store, an old guy explains the Sadie Hawkins Day race, where the women chase after the unmarried men so they can marry them.

Delightful will demonstrate how to use feminine wiles on Lil Abner for Daisy.

Golley, Ah've nevahr bin out walkin' with a femael lahk you.. Unfortunately, the attempt doesn’t work because Lil Abner hates love. Delightful agrees with him and is able to do fairly well until Daisy takes a club to knock out Lil Abner.

Lil Abner’s parents’ cabin, Mammy is bathing Pappy outside in a washtub.

Operation Washtub was only success for the lye soap manfuacturers.

Unedited footage from the "Geezers Gone Wild" DVD...

Lil Abner fixes a sandwich and gets a stomachache. He decides to go to the neighboring town to see a visiting doctor. Unfortunately, he gets confused and mistakes a barber for the doctor. The barber claims that Lil Abner has strombosis and will be dead in 24 hours.

Lil Abner tells his parents he’ll be dead soon. Mammy convinces him to marry Daisy Mae since he thinks he’ll be dead. Later, Lil Abner kisses Daisy. According to the code of the hills, they have to get married.

Lil Abner decides to catch Earthquake McGoon. William Tell Overture brings an audience. The Skunk Hollow folks chase Lil Abner. He runs into Wendy Wildcat who’ll agree to help him escape if he marries her. He agrees since he thinks he’ll be dead.

Gets the reward, and leaves it with his parents. Lil Abner thinks he is now in heaven which looks exactly like Dogpatch. Finally, he realizes that he’s not going to die and agreed to marry 2 different women.

The day before Sadie Hawkins Race, Wendy and Daisy are fighting over which one of them gets Lil Abner. The mayor reserves Lil Abner for just those 2 women.

Right before the race, Pappy breaks Earthquake out of jail. As the bachelors start to run off, the women chase after them. The sheriff discovers that Earthquake is loose. While some of the women catch their men, Earthquake is tossing rocks at Lil Abner. The posse dynamite Earthquake and finally catch him.

Lil Abner disguises himself but Daisy Mae catches him. He runs off as the theme song plays.

What I say:

With Thanksgiving this week, I figured I would post a smaller than average review. Think of it as an appetizer. I think it's fair to say, one shouldn't expect profound "art" from any movie named Li'l Abner. Have to admit I never have read any of the Lil Abner comic strips. So I don't know much about the sarcastic edge Al Capp put in a lot of the strips. My biggest experience with the Dogpatch characters is the few times I went to the Dogpatch theme park as kid in the 1980s. Just writing something like that makes me start to feel old. At least, I got to see Skeletor at Dogpatch once..

Li'l Abner and Dog Patch are almost entirely synonmous with hill folk or redneck if Jeff Foxworthy hadn't made 2.3 trillion redneck jokes in the last couple of decades. At this point, people would think of redneck as Dukes of Hazzard or maybe some of the hicksploitation movies from the 1970s. However, before the White Lightning was being run or Beverly Hillbillies Granny's Rheumatism Medicine was being used for rocket fuel, the days belonged to Kickapoo Joy Juice.

Imagine the mentality of Jethro Bodine (from the Beverly Hillbillies) divided by 2 but without his super--sized super-ego would get you close to the mentality of Li'l Abner. He thinks he's going to die and figures why not make some girls happy by agreeing to marry them. Unfortunately, he discovers he's not going to die so shenannigins ensue. Near the end, it becomes just the chase you'd think that be at the end of a cartoon.

For most people, the names who starred aren't exactly names we'd recognize. Rooting through IMDB, most of them appeared as spectator in a crowd scene or popped up in a couple of Westerns. There is one difference. Buster Keaton is best known for the number of silent movies he starred in and not just for being "Old Stoneface." He only pops up here and there throughout the movie as Lonesome Polecat. More than just a walk on role but less even than a supporting character.

B-movies or forgotten old movies can always have some strange bits of trivia. Normally, I don't mention much about the soundtracks or theme songs unless they're as trippy as Green Slime, funky as Shaft, or 80s as Howard the Duck. Still, Li'l Abner does have some double choclate frosted cool points for Milton Berle helping to write the theme song.

Quotable Dialogue
"Whatcha doin' you, polecat?"
"He cain't help he's stupid."
"I hates love."
"Hurt my head!" or "Hurt mah haid!"
"All you got is a touch of mustard poisoning."
Morals of the Story
Sunlight comes late in the morning.
Wood can easily be broken over your leg.
Baths are given at the start of winter.
Subway sandiwhces were originally created in the Ozark Mountains.
Hill folk are always ready to start an angry mob.