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Li'l Abner | 
 enlarge | Director: Melvin Frank
Actors: Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Stubby Kaye, Peter Palmer, Howard St. John
Studio: Paramount
Buy New: $7.99
New (40) Used (13) from $4.19
Format: Color, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: PARD059084D
ISBN: 1415709173
UPC: 097360590845
EAN: 9781415709177
Theatrical Release Date: 1959
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
WHEN THE HILLBILLY TOWN OF DOGPATCH - DEEMED THE MOST USELESS COMMUNITY IN AMERICA - IS CHOSEN AS A TEST SITE FOR A-BOMBS, ITS COLORFUL CITIZENS TAKE UP THE GOOD FIGHT, WITH LOTS OF FUN & MERRIMENT.
Amazon.com
This is one movie musical that doesn't bother adapting its stage presentation for the big screen: Li'l Abner cheerfully uses brightly colored, patently fake backdrops and stage sets for its mythical setting. And why not? A movie musical based on a cartoon strip is about as far from reality as you can get. Al Capp's legendary comic about the hillbilly denizens of Dogpatch was brought to Broadway by the estimable comedy team Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, who also produced the movie. Along with sampling Capp's world (the pursuit of noncommittal Abner by Daisy Mae on Sadie Hawkins Day is a major plot device), the movie is a goofy record of 1950s attitudes and concerns--in fact, Dogpatch is threatened with destruction when the government wants to use it as an atomic test site. The actors' Broadway delivery has a deadening effect after a while, and some of the makeup is downright weird (think the Whos in the live-action Grinch). Gene de Paul's music is unmemorable, but Johnny Mercer's lyrics provide considerable fun, and the athletic dances are based on Michael Kidd's stage choreography. Plus, the movie honors Capp's eye for impossibly bodacious women by casting Julie Newmar as Stupefyin' Jones and Stella Stevens (her first movie role) as Appassionata Von Climax. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Lil Abner July 4, 2009
J. Mcdonald
I love this movie! It is a wonderful funloving recreation of the comic strip. If your like good clean fun this is the movie for you!
 Lil Abner June 11, 2009
George R. Kirby Jr. (Struthers, Ohio)
I love the movie especially the music but the dvd freezes every once in a while
AH HAS SPOKEN! June 10, 2009
Francisco J. Calderon (Mexico City, Mexico)
Musically it's no Rodgers & Hammerstein; but it is an exceptional adaptation from comic strip to cinema, the more so considering its meager budget. Leslie Parrish, Peter Palmer (reprising his Broadway role as Abner), Billie Hayes and Al Nesor are dead ringers for their Dogpatch counterparts, and so is everyone else ...except for Earthquake McGoon (though no one notices). Cult legend Julie Newmar has a minor role as Stupefyin' Jones, and Jerry Lewis makes a stupified cameo. Only Salomey is missing!
Script and sets have a trace of Al Capp's sharp pen and wit ("'Afternoon, I'm Moonbeam McSwine; sleepin' out with pigs is mah line"), and even the choreography resembles the strip's manic tempo and outlandish draftsmanship -something the much more lavished "Dick Tracy" tried hard to achieve years later, but didn't.
Given today's infatuation with putting comics and graphic novels on film, it would be interesting to see a LI'L ABNER remake done with state of the art technology, but only if they repeat what makes this forgotten movie a gem: good script and good casting. One can put all the eye-popping visuals money can buy on screen, they won't amount to much if those two basic ingredients are missing. Remember PEARL HARBOR, and that SUPERMAN RETURNS bomb!
 Li'l Abner June 3, 2009
Charles F. Maxwell (Renton, WA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I rate the DVD you sent me as poor. Li'l Abner plays a quarter of the way and then freezes up. I am trying it on a third DVD player and it freezes up in the same place as the first two players. How can I get my money back or a new copy of Li'l Abner?
 Li'l ABNER March 18, 2009
Michael G. Spennato (Staten Island, New York United States)
This film is a nestolgic musical that brings me back to my youth, the film offers a bit of fun to everyday life. The story line is a bit corney, where a town - Dogpatch USA, is scheduled to be a test site for atomic weapons unless there can be found a usefullness for the town. The introduction of a tonic, that makes men handsome and strong, while at the same time decreasing their virility, was thought to be cause to save the town - Dogpatch USA. I do not want to reaveal the end but this musical while predictive and the songs may not meet up to todays standards is fun, jubalient and enjoyable and yes fit for children.
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