The film was sold with the incongruous image of Knotts as a Hugh Hefner-type ladies man, flanked by a half-dozen mini-skirted Playmate-types, with the original poster asking, "The World's Most Romantic Male?" In fact much of the film is a political satire about First Amendment rights. After losing his fourth class mailing privileges in a lawsuit, unrepentant smut peddler Osborn Tremain (Edmond O'Brien) cons the editor of a bird-watching magazine, Abner Peacock IV (Knotts), to turn that struggling publication over. As Tremain sends Abner off to South America in search of a rare bird, Tremain's nudie magazine takes over. The publication is sued and the case becomes a litmus test before the Superior Court. Upon his return, Abner is shocked to learn of his magazine's notoriety, and of his Larry Flynt-like reputation as its editor. Nonetheless, free speech advocates rally to Abner's side, while he vainly tries to restore his good name.

The Knotts-as-Playboy image is confined to the picture's more conventional second half. After winning the free speech case, Tremain, his gangland financier (B.S. Pulley), and an ambitious magazine editor (Anne Francis), decide to capitalize on the magazine's notoriety and turn Abner into the fantasy image of its readership.

Knotts's previous films for Universal, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), and The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), had been generic genre parodies, built around the actor's familiar persona. The Love God? casts Knotts in a role more akin to Eddie Bracken's part in Preston Sturges's Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Not that The Love God? comes anywhere near that film in terms of quality, but like Bracken's 4-F war hero, Knotts's birdwatcher is basically the eye of hurricane of activity and only by default its central character. The film is full of Damon Runyon types, particularly Pulley's hilarious gangster, a frog-voiced bully trying to better himself with elocution lessons. (The film has a particularly funny running gag built around Pulley's use of the word "prerogative."

The film has Hiken's style all over it. Pulley had appeared regularly on Hiken's "Car 54, Where Are You?" and Billy Sands, Pvt. Dino Paparelli in Bilko's platoon (on "The Phil Silvers Show," was an associate producer and appears unbilled. More obviously though, is that at least two of the main characters in The Love God?, O'Brien's nudie publisher and James Gregory's defense attorney, play as if each part had been written with Phil Silvers in mind. Sadly, what might have been a nostalgic reunion of great talent was not to be, and the film was Hiken's last -- he died in December 1968, almost a full year before The Love God? went into release.

Knotts does his usual shtick and is mildly amusing, though the film doesn't depend on his talent the way his earlier starring vehicles did. O'Brien and Gregory are fun in their Bilko-esque parts, while Anne Francis, who probably had to swallow her pride to make this, is funny and sexy. Southern California viewers will note the appearance of local news icon Larry McCormick (of KTLA) in a fairly substantial role. Marjorie Bennett, James Westerfield, Bob Hastings, and an unbilled Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales pepper the cast of familiar character players.

Video & Audio

Though some sources credit this as being shot in Techniscope, the film appears to have been shot flat for 1.85:1 projection, and that's how it is presented on this DVD. There's no Techniscope credit anywhere on the film, and the compositions look just right at 1.85:1. Prints were by Technicolor, and Universal was frequently utilizing the Techniscope process around this time so the error is understandable. The image, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, is excellent throughout. Good transfers of minor catalogue titles like this rarely get the praise they deserve, particularly those shot in flat 1.85:1 format, but The Love God? really does look great, with excellent color and a razor sharp image. All told, it probably looks better than it did when it was new. The Dolby Digital mono is fine and both Spanish and French tracks are offered.

Extras

None, not even trailers for Universal's other four Knotts titles.

Parting Thoughts

Don Knotts is hard to dislike, even if his starring features were generally mediocre. For those mildly curious about the Knotts oeuvre, The Love God? isn't a bad place to start, even if most of what's funny in the picture can be credited, mainly, to the sly comic wit of writer-director Nat Hiken.