If you can leave howls of “Sexism!” at the door, Li’l Abner offers lots and lots of pleasure to be found beyond Appassionata von Climax. It’s the 1959 film version of the Broadway hit, and one of the best things about it is that it basically reproduces the stage original, so you get a marvelous sense of state-of-the-art musical comedy in 1957—as conceived by the same bookwriters, choreographer, leading man (Peter Palmer was born to play the title role!), and first rate songs by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul.

Dogpatch USA, the world Al Capp created for a comic strip that ran 43 years, is a world of lovable (if most dim-witted) people. It has an overlay of puckish political satire, so that gives the opportunity to take the nation’s temperature in 1959. Safe to say it’s running a fever, as usual.

For film buffs, the highlight is the “Sadie Hawkins Day” ballet, recreated by Michael Kidd with 50 visual jokes per minute. But that’s not to underestimate the triumph of the whole enterprise. As unreal as Dogpatch may be, these actors are committed to finding their own reality there. Which makes it not only funny, but even touching.