The Love God? (1969)

Barney Fife does Austin Powers!

If you want some good solid laughs, you've got to see this unexpectedly hilarious movie! On the surface, you'd think that The Love God? is going to be the worst clinker in movie history. The editor of a failing bird magazine falls into the hands of a manipulative smut peddler who turns Peacock Magazine into a sexual revolution Playboy knock-off.

However, with a cast of great comedic talents and a script that will keep you laughing all the way through, The Love God? surprisingly rates as one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Nat Hiken is a comedy genius who brought laughs to Sargeant Bilko, one of the best sitcoms of all-time. I've loved Anne Francis since Forbidden Planet and there are few baby boomers who did not adore her as Honey West in 1965.

But the real magic of this film comes from the amazing Don Knotts, whose comedic skills blow everyone else off the screen. Don Knotts is the Jim Carrey of his era. Just seeing Don Knotts facial expressions are worth the price of the DVD.

The best plot twist of the film puts the enamored Anne Francis into the position of having to seduce Don Knotts for business reasons because the story is about to be leaked that The Love God is, in reality, a virgin!
(And she attempts to do it in a huge bed with a gigantic headboard of a cartoonish heart AND a scoreboard on display -- trying to convince him that it was her first time as well.)

Don't miss this film! December 14, 2007

now i'm an Anne Francis fan!

Before there was Jim Carey, believe me, there was Don Knotts.

Jim is a master at contorting his face in any number of comical ways

but let's face it...then there is Don Knotts.

Don wrote the BOOK on facial hysteria! His numerous facial twitches, bug-eyed wonder and slack-jawed dumbfoundedness are a thing to behold.

And all of it is wonderfully on display in The Love God?

Don plays the meek editor of a bird magazine which has fallen upon hard times and just like that a saviour arrives in the personage of a rather seedy, slimey girly magazine publisher who manipulates poor Abner(Knotts) into turning his beloved Peacock magazine into a SMUT publication!

Well, one thing turns into another and before you know it Abner is leading a swinging lifestyle complete with his own Peacock clubs and a posse of Pussycat girls at his beck and call. And, the real love of his life, the ministers' daughter RoseEllen left back home waiting .....and waiting, for Abner to come home.

Abner is strung along in his new publishing venture by a fast city slicker editor by the name of Miss Lisa Lamonica played by Anne Francis.

As much of a tour-de-force that Knotts is, leaving us in stitches as he muggs his way through the grand musical number performed at the Peacock club, it is all equaled by the talent and charm of miss Francis. With her trademark beauty mark at the corner of her smile Anne is sharp, funny, beautiful and sexy all rolled into one. This movie cemented my attraction to her and now i want to see every movie she's been in!

In summation...if you want to laugh till it hurts watching Don do his thing and be smitten by the lovely miss Francis, try The Love God?

Music by Vic Mizzy. of course. June 12, 2007

Don Knotts

This movie is an all time favorite. Don Knotts is at his best. The bird calls are funny every time. When we want to just kick back an have fun, we watch this movie. March 1, 2007

A Change of Pace that Satisfies

In the Don Knotts canon, "The Love God?" occupies a unique place--not only because of its adult slant on sex, but because the ensemble cast is the strongest Don ever had. Edmund O'Brien and Anne Francis had both been feature stars, and they are ably abetted by a half-dozen vivid supporting actors. (The best of these is the great James Gregory as a legendary First Amendment attorney. What scenery chewing! You will never forget the sneering contempt in Gregory's voice as he defends "this filthy little degenerate" in court.)

By portraying the Swinging Sixties and its sexed-up icons as silly creations no more "with it" than the Silent Majority they mocked, "The Love God?" actually stands up pretty well for today's viewer. Plus it's fun to watch Don tricked out in mod fashions, making the scene in those groovy nightlife montages!

I think you'll enjoy this quirky mixture of "Austin Powers" and "The Trial of Larry Flynt," especially when it makes clear just how seriously many people took these issues at the time. February 2, 2007

I'm sorta fond of "The Love God"...

I was diggin' through the used DVDs section at my favorite used-movies-and-music joint the other day when I came across this title. I got curious when I read the movie's title along the DVD case's spine (why the question mark after the title? I'd find out soon 'nuff), then I got curiouser (?!) when I saw Don Knotts on the cover as a would-be Hugh Hefner decked out in one of Liberace's hand-me-downs, surrounded by a quartet of groovy-lookin' bimbettes. Then came the deal-sealer, one of the greatest movie tag lines ever:

"So many women... not enough man."

Needless to say, I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity I was holdin' in my hot little hands!

But in all seriousness, when I read the movie's brief breakdown on the back of the DVD case, I knew I hadda give "The Love God?" a spin in my aging player (we're talkin' late 90s DVD technology here). Don Knotts as the young (heh) owner of a financially troubled bird-watching magazine who becomes a victim of circumstance, which is set up by the movie's rather shallow flower-power-era message on naughty magazines and American freedom of expression? Sounds groovy, man.

'Course, the whole Don-Knotts-as-a-victim-of-circumstance angle is a perfect showcase for his over-the-top array of deer-caught-in-the-headlights facial expressions... which he breaks out quite often in the course of the film, especially during the two "Bird-Call Song" church sequences, and when dealing with the mob-connected "investor" character. Some times his reactions worked quite well here, like when he's in court being tried for publishing smut, and he starts to take notice of alla the women in the gallery falling for what the prosecutor calls his "seductive bedroom eyes". Most of the time, however, his expressions look just plain silly and downright dumb. `Course, it kinda makes me wonder what sorts of faces he makes when he's, er, "getting romantic" as it were...

Also a bit off-putting were a few bits of weirdness here, there, and everywhere. For starters: the melding of this somewhat amusing story set in the era of free love with the Technicolor hues one associates more with movies from the 1940s and 50s made for an odd combo. And the "trademark" caricature of Don Knotts' character that pops up at his mag's Manhattan publishing offices and a Playboy Club-like venue hardly resembles the guy at all! Speakin' of the club: one of the movie's low points occurs here with quite possibly the worst "tribute" tune I've ever fast-forwarded through, featuring the titular "sex symbol" wearing a new "mod" outfit with each cutaway to a different angle.

Anyhoo, if you're looking for a little something that really showcases Don Knotts' greatest "talents", and produces more'n a few laughs... I recommend you check out a few "Herbie" movies, or a few of "Three's Company's" later episodes, and save "The Love God?" for a rainy day.

`Late March 15, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...