The Love God? (1969)

I saw this after viewing a short clip on you-tube.I thought Mr. Knotts was funny in this movie, but I thought Anne Francis was fantastic. I am not one to notice wardrobe but the wardrobe in this movie really made the film. this is not a great comedy it is cute one. and the idea of smut in the mail given our modern context is really interesting. I loved some of the minor characters.I do want to note that I find it hilarious that user reviews say the mayberry fans/clean cut family types were turned off by this movie. I am sure some of them were. But this movie came in 1969. let's give it some context. Playboy clubs had been open for nine years. this movie obviously is riffing off of Hugh Hefner's empire. the "naughty magazines" with "nude" women in this movie show no T or A. while at the time in the 1960s, actual nudie magazines did. the mock up nude magazine of this movie more fit the pinup culture of the 1940s. secondly, for all the prudes whose movie reviews are actually social editorials, the big spoiler of the movie is that the movie EXPLICITLY STATES that DON KNOTTS is VIRGIN, and the movie ends with his him STILL BEING ONE.Woodstock had happened. people were burning bras. they people whose children watched mayberry now had grown children protesting Vietnam.the rest of film culture had moved to much much grittier work. were stuck up religious nuts turned off by this movie? maybe. But the fact that this film had a more provocative tone may have shown him to a new crowd. To the people that say this was the "end of his career" as a starring man" because it was not family friendly...that is a nice nostaligic narrative. Butthe fact is that he made the Figgs movie as lead man afterwards. And that movie was very clear in its marketing that it was more family friendly. Why? Because Knott's handlers already realized that if he WAS to be leading man material it was solely to the yuck-yuck family friendly crowd. The film industry and America had moved on. Mainstream America thought Don Knott's sort of humor was great in 1964 but by 1971 his comedy could only be marketed to people with small children. Don't get me wrong, as a cinema geek and classic movie lover, I love stuff like Ghost and Mr. Chicken, but you could not sell movie tickets in a regular theater with Don Knotts as star by 1970s, family friendly or not. That is why he stopped being leading man...no market.

This was a decent movie from start to finish. I thought the story, characters, and actors did an excellent job making this movie seem realistic. Don Knotts is as always the geeky skinny guy who seems like he'd be the last one picked to do what he does. He plays these characters the best. If you are a fan of Don Knotts, you will enjoy this, simply out of the amusement of seeing him play the super-stud character. The plot is excellent, and not boring, but the content isn't as funny as Don Knotts' other films. Definetely check it out though. It isn't as family oriented because of the content it conveys, but it is still a film that most would enjoy. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10 rating.

Throughout the 1960s, Don Knotts enjoyed box office success with a series of wholesome, family-oriented comedies for Universal. At the end of the decade, Universal took a gamble by starring Don Knotts in a mildly risque social satire, THE LOVE GOD? Contemporary filmgoers responded coolly to this film, but it has stood the test of time as both a witty lampoon of media manipulation and a fine showcase of Knotts's talents.Knotts plays Abner Peacock, the mild-mannered editor of a floundering bird-watching magazine, The Peacock. Osborn Tremaine (Edmund O'Brien) takes over the publication. While Abner's away on a bird-watching safari, Osborn transforms The Peacock into a pornography magazine. When Abner returns, he finds himself with a notorious reputation.Director/writer Nat Hiken (the genius behind THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW and CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU?) humorously examined the way the media and special interest groups distort people's images for their own self interests. A civil liberties lawyer (James Gregory) who represents Peacock when he's arrested by the FBI presents his client as an experienced smut peddler instead of an unwitting dupe so he can pursue his theories of Constitutional free speech law. The press perpetuates the myth of Abner as a "filthy little degenerate sex fiend" because it makes great copy. And the new editor of Peacock (Anne Francis) insists that he cultivate the image of a debonair womanizer because his scandalous publicity has boosted the magazine's sales.As played by the goofy looking, geeky acting Knotts, Abner is laughably unconvincing as a Hugh Hefner type. The comic incongruity of this situation is enhanced by the ladies' swooning reaction over him as if he was Adonis reborn. Hiken satirically demonstrates in these sequences how the media can make the public go wild over certain individuals they would normally scoff and ignore.If Hiken provides the film's bite, then Don Knotts provides the film's heart. As in his other films, he is a klutzy nerd who seems easily manipulated by others. But Knotts also provides a beguiling innocence and a folksy amiability that wins the audience over, making them root for him to succeed. THE LOVE GOD? is an underappreciated highlight in Knotts' career.

As a part of film history, "The Love God?" is uniformly dismissed as just another goofy, formulaic Don Knotts romp--and in many ways it does follow the Knotts formula pretty closely. But this time the Knotts formula was turned in on itself. In actuality "The Love God?" is one of the best mainstream American social satires of the 1960s, just behind recognized classics such as "Dr. Strangelove" and "The President's Analyst." Knotts plays his usual character, this time named Abner Peacock. Abner is the editor of a bird-watching magazine in financial trouble. His dying magazine, The Peacock, is taken over by a pornographer while Abner is in South America looking for a rare bird. Abner returns from his safari to find that the Peacock has been turned into a cross between Playboy and Hustler. He also finds himself arrested and a defendant in a constitutional battle over "his right" to publish "dirty pictures" in The Peacock. Abner only wants to have the truth be known--that he had his magazine shanghaied without his knowledge. But instead his case comes to the attention of a self-serving Civil Liberties attorney who wants to use his case as a free-speech landmark. Abner wins his case, but is not satisfied that he is represented as a "filthy degenerate sex fiend" (in a hilarious courtroom sequence). After his victory Abner wants the truth to come out, but he is convinced by the interest groups and his own money-sniffing relatives that it is his patriotic duty to keep publishing pornography as a freedom of speech issue. The attention draws big money to The Peacock, and Abner is further convinced that, in order for the magazine to be a success, he must play the part of the Sex God libertine.In true Knotts style, Abner gets totally carried away with the role of pseudo Hugh Hefner. But of course, the truth eventually comes out and Abner/Don eventually comes to his senses and of course triumphs over the bad guys.Now try and find a satire with a plot as smart as that in today's dimwitted movie market! This movie is as smart as it is hilarious. The only drawback is that the generally family-friendly nature of the film necessitates that the "outrageous pornography" represented is limited to photos of big-busted babes in swimsuits--stuff that wouldn't make an 11 year old of today break a blush. "The Love God?" is second in Don Knott's classic resume only to the all time classic "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken."