The Beverly Hillbillies * (1993, Jim Varney, Dabney Coleman, Lily Tomlin, Diedrich Bader, Cloris Leachman, Rob Schneider, Erika Eleniak, Lea Thompson) – Classic Movie Review 6649

Director Penelope Spheeris’s 1993 television sitcom spinoff of the much-loved nine-season The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) is amiable and harmless, and it certainly tries hard. But alas it is not much of a success thanks to both script and performance deficiencies.

At the soft centre of it, Jim Varney gives a disappointing, lacklustre performance as nice guy redneck Jed Clampett that helps to sink this feebly written big-screen transfer of the Sixties TV show, in which the wacky Clampett hillbilly family strikes black oil by accident in the Arkansas backwoods and uses the billions to start again as the hayseed nouveau riche acting like fish out of water among the snooty rich of posh Beverly Hills.

However, there are much better performances from Dabney Coleman as the penny-pinching bank manager Milburn Drysdale, Lily Tomlin as his officious assistant Miss Jane Hathaway, who has a yearning for Jed’s dumb but hunky nephew Jethro Bodine (promising newcomer Diedrich Bader), and Cloris Leachman as the family’s feisty Granny, who has the most trouble of all the family in coming to terms with the California culture.

The plot centres on the scheme of Drysdale {Coleman)’s treacherous junior banker Woodrow Tyler (Rob Schneider) to marry off his girlfriend Laura Jackson (Lea Thompson) to Jed to nab his fortune.

The Beverly Hillbillies may be good humoured but unfortunately it isn’t very funny, and director Spheeris just cannot find a way to get the rusty old jalopy motoring in gear. However, there are welcome guest appearances by Zsa Zsa Gabor on a police line, Dolly Parton singing happy birthday to Jed, and Buddy Ebsen (the original TV Jed Clampett of course) as his other famous TV character, the detective Barnaby Jones.

Erika Eleniak plays Elly May Clampett, Penny Fuller plays Mrs Margaret Drysdale, Kevin Connolly plays Morgan Drysdale and Linda Carlson plays Aunt Pearl.

It is written by Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal (story and screenplay), Jim Fisher and Jim Staahl (screenplay), based on the television series by Paul Henning, shot by Robert Brinkmann, produced by Ian Bryce and Penelope Spheeris, and scored by Lalo Schifrin, with Production Design by Peter Jamison.

It reunites three of the stars of Nine to Five (1980) – Coleman, Tomlin and Parton.

It is a PG ‘family comedy’ but there is a warning for ‘some off-colour humour’.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6649

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

The much-loved nine-season The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971) TV show.