Don Knotts is fun as always as Abner Peacock, editor of a birders' magazine that's about to go under. Enter Osborn Tremaine (Edmond O'Brien), a pornographer who's just lost his fourth class mail permit; he learns of Abners' woes and swoops in & acquires the birders' magazine, retooling it to suit his own vision. Although Abner is taken aback by everything that happens (as the "face" of the new magazine, he goes on trial for its obscenities), he's fashioned by others who get involved - including a mobster financier (B. S. Pully) - into a swinging Hugh Hefner type profiting from the sexual revolution.
Although no great shakes as Knotts' Universal starring vehicles go (the best remain "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" and "The Shakiest Gun in the West"), "The Love God?" is genial, largely good-natured comic mayhem. It does get a little bogged down in plot and go on a little too long, but there are some genuinely funny moments. Knotts is in good form, and receives able support from people like O'Brien, James Gregory (as Abners' attorney), and especially the gorgeous Anne Francis as the editor who develops the hots for him.
And therein lies the amusing hook of the plot, that women *everywhere* come to see Abner as this savvy sex symbol living with a menagerie of young lovelies. All the time, Abner insists on trying to remain a "pure" character, and faithful to the wide-eyed innocent (Maggie Peterson) waiting for him back in his hometown.
Certainly one thing that helps "The Love God?" stand out from other Knotts vehicles of the period is the fact that it *still* remains very relevant as it touches upon the issue of sexuality in North American life, and the moral issues surrounding it.
Best of all is the montage of Abner and his models & their photo shoots. That performance of "Summer in the Meadow" is also memorable.
Seven out of 10.
Although no great shakes as Knotts' Universal starring vehicles go (the best remain "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" and "The Shakiest Gun in the West"), "The Love God?" is genial, largely good-natured comic mayhem. It does get a little bogged down in plot and go on a little too long, but there are some genuinely funny moments. Knotts is in good form, and receives able support from people like O'Brien, James Gregory (as Abners' attorney), and especially the gorgeous Anne Francis as the editor who develops the hots for him.
And therein lies the amusing hook of the plot, that women *everywhere* come to see Abner as this savvy sex symbol living with a menagerie of young lovelies. All the time, Abner insists on trying to remain a "pure" character, and faithful to the wide-eyed innocent (Maggie Peterson) waiting for him back in his hometown.
Certainly one thing that helps "The Love God?" stand out from other Knotts vehicles of the period is the fact that it *still* remains very relevant as it touches upon the issue of sexuality in North American life, and the moral issues surrounding it.
Best of all is the montage of Abner and his models & their photo shoots. That performance of "Summer in the Meadow" is also memorable.
Seven out of 10.