I first knew about this (apart from Leslie Halliwell’s Film Guide) via its poster in a bulky scrapbook of my father’s containing adverts from the time such films were released in Malta. It’s never been shown in my neck of the woods and, therefore, I had to wait till I got hold of the DVD to check it out; despite not being a Musicals fan and the unappetizing backwoods milieu of the narrative, I’d always been interested in it – being based on a comic strip, it was bound to be stylized and filled with colorful characters (with equally descriptive names).
The songs are pretty good (one of the best numbers is the girls’ plea to turn their men from narcissistic bodybuilders – including future “Euro-Cult” stalwart Gordon Mitchell! – back into uncouth but amenable country-folk) – though, once again, the dance sequences (choreographed by Michael Kidd) go on too long and cause the almost two-hour film to drag. As I said in my review of the earlier and lesser straight 1940 version, the plot is much more elaborate this time around – not only do we get an attempt to evacuate the community to make way for A-Bomb tests (a nice touch of topicality) but Abner, Marryin’ Sam (Stubby Kaye) and later many of the people of Dogpatch go to Washington to present the Government with an essential homegrown product (the town had been deemed “the most useless in the U.S.A.”) and then to save the naïve Abner from the clutches of megalomaniac General Bullmoose (Howard St. John).
Sexuality is even more to the fore here – with several great-looking and scantily-clad ladies (Leslie Parrish as Daisy Mae, Carmen Alvarez as Moonbeam McSwine, Julie Newmar as Stupefyin’ Jones and, best of all, Stella Stevens as Bullmoose’s moll Appassionata von Climax!). Incidentally, the loutish Earthquake McGoon is less of a grotesque this time around; Abner’s parents, though, still look like they belong on another planet – also, Robert Strauss (very popular around this time) turns up under heavy (make that filthy) make-up as Daisy Mae’s opportunistic close relative, whereas Jerry Lewis does a very brief uncredited cameo as a dopey-looking character called Itchy McRabbit! By the way, just as RED GARTERS (1954; a viewing of which preceded this), had characters constantly referring to “The Code Of The West”, the people of Dogpatch live by “The Code Of The Hills”…
The songs are pretty good (one of the best numbers is the girls’ plea to turn their men from narcissistic bodybuilders – including future “Euro-Cult” stalwart Gordon Mitchell! – back into uncouth but amenable country-folk) – though, once again, the dance sequences (choreographed by Michael Kidd) go on too long and cause the almost two-hour film to drag. As I said in my review of the earlier and lesser straight 1940 version, the plot is much more elaborate this time around – not only do we get an attempt to evacuate the community to make way for A-Bomb tests (a nice touch of topicality) but Abner, Marryin’ Sam (Stubby Kaye) and later many of the people of Dogpatch go to Washington to present the Government with an essential homegrown product (the town had been deemed “the most useless in the U.S.A.”) and then to save the naïve Abner from the clutches of megalomaniac General Bullmoose (Howard St. John).
Sexuality is even more to the fore here – with several great-looking and scantily-clad ladies (Leslie Parrish as Daisy Mae, Carmen Alvarez as Moonbeam McSwine, Julie Newmar as Stupefyin’ Jones and, best of all, Stella Stevens as Bullmoose’s moll Appassionata von Climax!). Incidentally, the loutish Earthquake McGoon is less of a grotesque this time around; Abner’s parents, though, still look like they belong on another planet – also, Robert Strauss (very popular around this time) turns up under heavy (make that filthy) make-up as Daisy Mae’s opportunistic close relative, whereas Jerry Lewis does a very brief uncredited cameo as a dopey-looking character called Itchy McRabbit! By the way, just as RED GARTERS (1954; a viewing of which preceded this), had characters constantly referring to “The Code Of The West”, the people of Dogpatch live by “The Code Of The Hills”…