THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Jim Varney, Erika Eleniak, Lily Tomlin, Cloris Leachman, Lea Thompson, Diedrich Bader, Dabney Coleman. Screenplay: Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal and Jim Fisher & Jim Stahl. Director: Penelope Spheeris.
I knew I was in trouble in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES when Joke #1 involved stomping a bear in the groin. Joke #2 covered the expulsion of bodily gasses. The portion of the audience that was 8-12 years old, either chronologically or intellectually, howled with delight. I merely sat in astonished silence and prepared for a very long ninety minutes.
The film version of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES doesn't stray far from the premise of the 1962-1971 television series. Jed Clampett (Jim Varney) stumbles upon a billion dollar reservoir of crude oil while hunting in Arkansas, then decides to move to California with spunky daughter Elly May (Erika Eleniak), irrascible Granny (Cloris Leachman) and lunkhead nephew Jethro (Diedrich Bader). The reason for the move: widower Jed wants to find a new wife and educate tomboyish Elly May in the ways of a refined woman. In Beverly Hills, Jed entrusts his fortune to bank president Milburn Drysdale (Dabney Coleman) and his unctuous assistant Miss Jane Hathaway (Lily Tomlin). Meanwhile, bank toady Tyler (Rob Schneider) and his gold-digging girlfriend Laura (Lea Thompson) hatch a plan to have Laura pose as a French governess for Elly May, insinuating herself into the Clampetts' good graces as well as their checkbook.
The real star of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES is casting director Glenn Daniels, who has put together about as perfect a physical match for the cast of the series as I could imagine. Simply admiring Cloris Leachman's remarkable resemblance to the late Irene Ryan was enough to inspire me to grant HILLBILLIES about ten minutes of good will. Unfortunately, that turned out to be nine minutes too much. As eager as the performers seem to be to throw themselves into their roles, they're just not given anything remotely interesting to do.
Congratulate Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, who receive story and co-screenwriting credit, for pulling off a challenging task: coming up with a script even more pedestrian than their work in FOR LOVE OR MONEY. They aim their jokes so far below the belt that they usually end up somewhere around the ankles. The ADDAMS FAMILY approach is clearly in evidence here, namely to come up with a gauze-thin story, then turn the characters loose to ham it up in comic strip fashion. THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES maintains a fairly consistent pattern of setup-setup-gag, setup-setup-gag, where you can see, hear and smell every one coming from several miles away. The series ran for ten years; there's just not much new ground to cover in the "rednecks among the ritzy" department. It's therefore not much of a surprise that the few really fresh and funny moments don't involve the Hillbillies at all; watch instead (if watch you must) for some sharp jabs at Beverly Hills high school students. These laughs are so rare, I won't spoil them by name.
As in her hit WAYNE'S WORLD, director Penelope Spheeris seems to wallow in intertextuality. We get references to "Jeopardy," "People's Court," "Barnaby Jones," and DELIVERANCE, just to name a few, and none of them are funny. Spheeris seems to be making the mistaken assumption that referentiality is funny in its own right, regardless of context, forgetting that WAYNE'S WORLD worked because it was *about* the pop culture awareness of the twentysomethings. There's none of that goofy self-awareness in THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, just a plodding, almost smug conviction that it will be a hit no matter what kind of garbage they throw at the audience. It would be nice to see them proved wrong.
Sadly, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES seems destined to attract the same audience that made THE ADDAMS FAMILY a hit, a combination of nostalgic parents and easily-amused kids. For nostalgia, watch the series in syndicated reruns for free; for the kids, just give them a good book. They'll thank you for it later.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 servings of road kill stew: 2.
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