Li’l
Abner (1959)
Picture: B
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film:
B
Li’l
Abner (1959) is one of the more tolerable of the super-glossy
musicals that erupted during the 1950’s, but this VistaVision shot film from
Paramount still holds solid ground even after all these years as a film that
can be taken seriously for its good production value, despite some of the
off-beat performances. Probably what
makes it gel together is the music being top-notch for nearly the entire film,
as well as a handful of talent and not just the leads, in fact most of them
were cast from the 1956 Broadway version, which explains a lot.
While Li’l Abner
is mostly musical it is also part screwball comedy as a small town is on the
threat of being evacuated by the government.
The town then tries to convince the government that their town is worth
saving. To make a long story short,
Li’l Abner might have a good solution to save the town, but the mix-up to the
solution involves Daisy May who is being pushed into marrying the wrong person,
instead of Li’l Abner who she wants to marry.
Each character is in a predicament and because of their situation…it
affects another person and so on and so forth.
The film stars Peter Palmer as Li’l Abner and Leslie Parrish as Daisy
Mae and some will recognize Julie Newmar as (get this name) Stupefyin’
Jones. No doubt the film has its
moments of cheesiness, but it still comes across strong when it’s all said and
done.
What is the key selling point for Paramount this time
around is this being one of the best looking musicals to hit the DVD format,
especially being a lesser-known title.
Being shot in glorious Technicolor and filmed in VistaVision the film
has such a strong presence on the DVD format.
Keep in mind that musicals went the extra mile to be really saturated
with colors that leap off the screen, which could pose a problem if not handled
correctly on DVD. Here we have the 1.85
X 1 anamorphic transfer looking stunning as ever. Greens, reds, blues, you name it and all the color reproduction
looks magnificent. There are a few
moments where the detail can be a bit dissatisfying if you are viewing on a
High Definition system or on a 20” Apple Cinema Display. If you notice around the 14:50 mark on the
disc that there are a lot of colors being reproduced within just one scene, and
yet all of them look fantastic. The red
does not bleed from his shirt into the blue of his pants, and check out the
various hues on the logs that they are sitting on! These are colors we are rarely treated to in film today.
The sound is a standard 2.0 Dolby Mono soundtrack, which
does keep with the films original design and sounds fairly good, but would have
been nice to have a remix considering the film rests heavily on its music. That would have been a superb option in this
case. Some hiss/grain remains vaguely
in the rear regions of the soundtrack causing only a noticeable difference if
you are listening with headphones on.
By the way this is the 1959 version of the film, not to be
confused with an earlier version from 1940.
Without seeing that film it is hard to compare, but my understanding is
that they are quite different in their delivery, which can be quickly addressed
as a genre issue than anything else. If
you love musicals than this is a nice little treat and the low price of this
DVD, plus the great quality will make it a true keeper. This is probably not a starting place for
those not that familiar or interested in the Musical genre in general though.
- Nate Goss
