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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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Li'l Abner (1959)

Rating: 1 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Dogpatch Dog

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Li'l Abner on DVD.

Based on the Broadway play and featuring many of the same actors, this terrible film plays as if someone left a camera running at one of the rehearsals. It features gorgeous sets, rich with bold colors, and is captured in beautiful widescreen photography, but director Melvin Frank never bothered to re-stage the story for the cinema. The actors still shout their lines to the cheap seats, and the high pitch begins to grate even before the opening titles have gone cold. The only reason to watch is for three beloved cult actors. Julie Newmar appears as Stupefyin' Jones, a gorgeous creature who steps out of a scientist's machine to goggle the eyes of innocent men everywhere. Stella Stevens plays Apassionata Von Climax, and Jerry Lewis appears in a cameo. If you're looking to see what "Li'l Abner" was really all about, track down some of Al Capp's original cartoons instead.

DVD Details: Paramount's DVD comes with no real extras to speak of.

Starring: Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Howard St. John, Julie Newmar, Stella Stevens, Jerry Lewis
Written by: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank, based on characters created by Al Capp and the Broadway play by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul
Directed by: Melvin Frank
MPAA Rating: NR
Running Time: 113 minutes
Date: April 29, 2005