LI'L ABNER (1940)

I lost the original version of my review of this movie (as well as a handful of others) in a jump drive incident a few months ago, so this is a slightly faded memory version of my reaction to this 1940 movie based on Al Capp's famous comic strip set in the small backwoods village of Dogpatch. Granville Owen makes for a nicely hunky and dumb Abner. (I know him from the serial TERRY AND THE PIRATES, but most would know him under the name Jeff York when he played Bud Searcy in OLD YELLER.) His Mammy is trying to marry him off to blond and busty Daisy Mae, though Abner just wants to live the carefree life of a backwoods bachelor. But when Abner becomes convinced that he has a fatal disease and only has 24 hours to live, he winds up promising to marry not only Daisy Mae but another sexpot named Wendy Wilecat. When he doesn't die, the only solution to his two-timing proposal is the annual Sadie Hawkins race, in which single women chase single men to catch and keep them. 

This is a low-budget affair, and the print I saw on YouTube was not in good shape, but still the comically anarchic nature of the proceedings comes through well enough. Owen embodies Abner, the muscular doofus, to a tee, and Martha O'Driscoll (pictured with Owen) is effective as Daisy Mae. Mona Ray, as Mammy Yokum, doesn't need to act much--her exaggerated nose and chin makeup do all her acting for her. Buster Keaton is completely wasted as an offensively stereotyped Indian--though every character here is some kind of stereotype, as they were in the original comic strip. The best scene is probably when Abner falls asleep in the woods, wakes up, and thinks he's died and gone to heaven. This will probably not hold the attention of someone who isn't already a classic movie-era fan, but I enjoyed it more than the glossy, big-budget 1959 musical film which, despite the songs and the sturdier sets and the widescreen, becomes elaborately far-fetched and ultimately failed to hold my interest. [YouTube]