The Worst Film Ever

That was an excellent one.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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.

Clean and decent ornithologist Don Knotts (as Abner Peacock IV) is about to see his poor-selling bird-watching magazine peck it in. Meanwhile, smut-peddling publisher Edmond O'Brien (as Osborne Tremain) loses his magazine's license, due to pornographic content. To continue printing his bosomy babes, O'Brien tricks Knotts into turning over his periodical's editorial content. After sending Knotts off on safari, O'Brien turns the tame "Peacock's Magazine" into a titillating masturbatory aide.Knotts returns to find himself corralled into becoming the defendant in a "free speech" case. With assistance from enterprising editor Anne Francis (as Lisa La Monica), Knotts is transformed into a Hugh Hefner-type publishing giant. Then, Ms. Francis falls in love with playboy Knotts...Knotts can't help but be funny; this particular characterization was perfected in his role of "Mr. Furley" on the TV series "Three's Company". His "Abner Peacock" is little less sure, perhaps necessarily so, considering the times. Note, the screeching and shouting was not part of Knotts' later routine. Under-appreciated writer/director Nat Hiken cleverly mixes satire and sexy women. "The Love God?" is colorful, and features a delightful supporting cast. Unfortunately, by the last act, the film's direction, and humor, has pointedly unraveled.***** The Love God? (1969) Nat Hiken ~ Don Knotts, Anne Francis, Edmond O'Brien

Yes, if nothing else, the Mr. Peacock song montage makes this movie for me. I can't help but laugh out loud every time I see it. The movie itself is also quite good, relatively speaking. Any film with Don Knotts playing an unwitting Hugh Hefner clone can't help but be at least amusing in my book. But watch for his little dance during the montage--that self satisfied smirk on his face while Darlene Love sings his virtues--it's a surreal treat. Of course, most of his films--The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Shakiest Gun in the West, The Reluctant Astronaut, and The Incredible Mr. Limpet all have something entertaining to offer to those in the mood for something fun and undemanding.

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."