DVDs: A Typical Day in Dogpatch, U.S.A.
Al Capp's hugely popular comic strip Li'l Abner first appeared in The New York Mirror in 1935. Capp was out to lampoon contemporary society and its foibles when he created the denizens of Dogpatch, U.S.A., dominated by the brawny but dim Abner Yokum and Daisy Mae, the pulchritudinous young woman attempting to get Abner to marry her.
A rarely seen, low-budget film based on the strip was released in 1940. A few years later, the property was considered for the stage, taken up first by Alan Jay Lerner, who planned to collaborate on a Li'l Abner musical with composer Arthur Schwartz or Burton Lane. But Lerner couldn't seem to conquer the problems of the adaptation, and abandoned the project.
It was picked up by the team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, long established in Hollywood as successful writers, producers, and directors. Michael Kidd, who had distinguished himself on Broadway with the choreography for Finian's Rainbow, Guys and Dolls, and Can-Can, and on screen with the dances for Guys and Dolls, Where's Charley?, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, was hired to make his debut as stage director in addition to handling the choreography. Kidd brought with him from Seven Brides a gifted team of songwriters, composer Gene de Paul and veteran lyricist Johnny Mercer, the latter already represented on Broadway by St. Louis Woman, Texas, Li'l Darlin', and Top Banana. Panama, Frank, and Kidd joined together to produce the stage musical Li'l Abner, with financing supplied by Paramount Pictures.
Kidd hired his Guys and Dolls stage and screen featured player Stubby Kaye to play the jovial cartoon character Marryin' Sam. Fresh from Broadway's Wonderful Town and television assignments was leading lady Edith Adams, just right for Daisy Mae. The formidable form of Julie Newmar also from Seven Brides was ideal for the silent but significant role of Stupefyin' Jones. And a dream Abner was found one night when the producers spotted football-playing soldier Peter Palmer on an "Ed Sullivan" all-GI talent show.
Kidd's biggest opportunity in Li'l Abner came in the first-act Sadie Hawkins Day ballet, for the Panama-Frank libretto retained Capp's notion of an annual event during which the man-hungry women of Dogpatch chase after and secure mates. The script also covered Dogpatch's nomination as a venue for atom-bomb testing and General Bullmoose's attempt to steal the recipe for Mammy Yokum's Yokumberry tonic, the elixir that has made Abner such a perfect specimen. The show's satiric targets included big business, nuclear policy, conformity, and political right-wingers.
With some of the sharpest lyrics of the period, the Mercer-De Paul score is among the most enjoyable of the fertile '50s. As in Guys and Dolls, where he sang "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," Kaye got a showstopper, a salute to the founder of Dogpatch, "Jubilation T. Cornpone." There was a fine opening number "It's a Typical Day", followed by strong romantic songs for Abner and Daisy "Namely You," "Love in a Home", spritely charm material "I'm Past My Prime", and witty comment numbers "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands".
Li'l Abner opened at the St. James Theatre on November 15, 1956, to generally good notices. Everyone raved over Kidd's dances, although New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson complained that nothing else in the show reached the level of the choreography. But others were much more enthusiastic. In The Daily News, John Chapman called it "a top flight American musical, ranking with Guys and Dolls." John McClain in The Journal-American described it as "a great big hit," while Richard Watts in The New York Post felt it was "a gay, colorful, lavish musical extravaganza."
In the year of Lerner's My Fair Lady, Li'l Abner wasn't even nominated for a best-musical Tony in addition to Fair Lady, Bells Are Ringing, The Most Happy Fella, and the short-lived Candide got the nods. But Tonys were won by Kidd for his choreography and by Edith Adams as featured actress.
Li'l Abner ran a healthy 693 performances on Broadway then toured. It became a staple on the stock and amateur circuit, and in 1998, City Center's Encores! revived it, with Burke Moses, Alice Ripley, Lea DeLaria in Kaye's role, and Newmar, still stupefyin' after all those years.
The show's Broadway success naturally led to a film version from Paramount. Shot in VistaVision, the Christmas 1959 release was written by Panama and Frank, directed by Frank, and produced by Panama. Michael Kidd's stage choreography was reproduced by Dee Dee Wood, who had danced in and assisted Kidd on the Broadway production.
Like the film versions of Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game, the screen version of Li'l Abner featured an amazing number of original-cast players. Hired to repeat their principal roles on film were Palmer, Kaye, Newmar, Howard St. John, Joe E. Marks, Bern Hoffman, Al Nesor, William Lanteau, Ted Thurston, Carmen Alvarez, and Stanley Simmonds. Billie Hayes, who had replaced Charlotte Rae as Mammy Yokum on Broadway, got to play Mammy on screen.
In the two most significant substitutions, pretty screen newcomer Leslie Parrish played Daisy Mae, and starlet Stella Stevens was Bullmoose's accomplice, Appassionata von Climax, a role played on Broadway by Tina Louise "Gilligan's Island". Glimpsed as Dogpatch wives in the film are future TV stars Valerie Harper and Beth Howland. And seen in a cameo is an unbilled Jerry Lewis.
A new song, less interesting than the others and called "Otherwise," was inserted. Dropped from the stage score were "Oh, Happy Day," "Love in a Home," "Progress Is the Root of All Evil," and "Unnecessary," with some sections of other numbers trimmed. Even with such alterations, the film ranks as one of the most authentic documents of a golden-age Broadway musical ever made.
For its long-awaited DVD premiere, Li'l Abner has not been fitted out with any extras, but none is necessary. All that matters is that the release boasts an excellent widescreen print that emphasizes the picture's lurid palette and the fact that the film, shot on deliberately artificial-looking sets, is one of the stagiest stage-to-screen transfers of all time.
As one rewatches the picture, one may wish that there were a bit less dialogue and a bit more music. But Palmer, Parrish, Kaye, Hayes and the others couldn't be better, and the script's tongue-in-cheek tone is nicely sustained. And because of its remarkable fidelity to the stage production, this is another one of those movies that's pretty much beyond criticism. For show fans, it's automatically one of the year's top DVD releases.