FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1 November 1940 by Vogue Pictures, Ltd. No New York opening. U.S. release through RKO Radio Pictures: 1 November 1940. Never released in Australia, either theatrically or on television. 78 minutes.U.K. release title: TROUBLE CHASER.SYNOPSIS: Suffering a bout of indigestion after eating a Dagwood Bumstead sandwich, Li'l Abner is told by a mischievous barber that he has only 24 hours to live.NOTES: The plot of this one bears little relationship to the 1959 Paramount musical which was based on the very successful 1956 Broadway play.COMMENT: Here's a movie that fully deserved its poor reputation. In fact it's plain awful in just about every way. That's a pity because the producer had at least one worthwhile idea. By handing out parts to old-time comedians like Buster Keaton and Chester Conklin in theory he should have gladdened the hearts of picturegoers worldwide. Unfortunately, the witless script lets them down. In fact, aside from the decorative Martha O'Driscoll, the only featured player to give an attractive performance is Walter Catlett. I suspect he wrote his lines himself. Certainly he delivers them with a panache and style that serves to point up the amateurishness and signal lack of talent of most of the other players. I could go through the cast list awarding dishonorable mentions right and left, but it's most simpler to list those few such as Kay Sutton and Dick Elliott who are halfway competent. Indeed the introduction to Kay Sutton with the camera zeroing in on her eyes is just about the only touch of genuine flair the direction displays throughout. Fortunately the producer extended his love for the veteran slapstick comedians to the silent period generally, for he has given a job to Herman Raymaker, a successful director of the mid-twenties (e.g. the Rin-Tin-Tin feature, The Night Cry), who was forced into an early retirement a few years after the coming of sound (one of his last films, Trailing the Killer, made in 1932, starred Heinie Conklin who has a small part here). Raymaker directed the Walter Catlett scene as well as the climactic Sadie Hawkins Day race - and maybe even the Skunk Hollow chase as well. These scenes are certainly livelier than the rest of this tediously disappointing, elephantine movie. Hard to believe the waffley, non-satiric, schoolboyish story came from the pen of Al Capp himself. How could he disappoint his fans with such limpid tosh?

arfdawg-1 The Plot.Li'l Abner becomes convinced that he is going to die within twenty-four hours, so agrees to marry two different girls: Daisy Mae (who has chased him for years) and Wendy Wilecat (who rescued him from an angry mob). It is all settled at the Sadie Hawkins Day race.The movie isn't as bad as some reviewers say. It's actually somewhat interesting to see the first renderings of some of these characters.A few giggles here and there and a notable appearance of Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.

wes-connors In rural Dogpatch, most eligible young women want to marry hunky Jeff York (as Li'l Abner). Curly blonde Martha O'Driscoll (as Daisy Mae) tries to arouse Mr. York with cleavage and a twisted ankle, but York doesn't want to get hitched. When a phony doctor gives him 24 hours to live, he reconsiders. Also turned on by dark-haired Kay Sutton (as Wendy Wilecat), York eventually finds himself engaged to both women. Based on Al Capp comic strip, this version of "Li'l Abner" is flat and uninspired. It does have an interesting cast of veterans, though, including Buster Keaton (as Lonesome Polecat) doing his stone-faced Indian schtick.*** Li'l Abner (11/1/40) Albert S. Rogell ~ Jeff York, Martha O'Driscoll, Buster Keaton, Maude Eburne

Jay Raskin I was pleasantly surprised watching this comedy for a number of reasons. First, it was not as low budget and amateurish as I expected. It was actually a quite respectable B movie with make-up, sets, stunts and camera-work that matched the level of W.C. Fields and Laurel and Hardy features of the time.Second, Buster Keaton's short role prefigured the third banana roles he would play in the American International Beach Movies of the 1960's. His on-screen time is less than five minutes, still, I suspect he had a lot more to do with the production of the movie than his bit part would indicate. The gags have a Keatonesque quality. For example the ending scenes of the women chasing men are reminiscent of the ending scenes in his "Seven Chances." The world of Dogpatch has a self contained, parody of the intellectual world quality, as does many of the comedic worlds created by Keaton (See his "Three Ages" for example.The humor in the movie foreshadows the hillbilly humor of the 1960's television series, "The Beverly Hillbillies." A recent Lucille Ball biog movie suggested that Keaton had played a major part in the success of the 1950's television series "I Love Lucy." If Keaton did play a role in designing some of the gags in this movie, one might suggest that Keaton was in some sense responsible for a great deal of the successful comedies of the 1950's and 1960's.On the other hand, the producers might have hired them only because they liked his silent film work and he might not have had any input to the film other than his two or three days on set in his bit part. I wonder if anybody else has any information about the role Keaton played in this still charming movie.