Elly May wrestles Derek scene in The Beverly Hillbillies

Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills, CA

Morgan Drysdale, the son of the Clampett’s banker, is sent in his convertible to pick Elly May up and take her with him to Beverly Hills High School, where they are both enrolled. He arrives at the Clampett mansion in his convertible, as Jethro carries a motorcycle across the driveway, and Elly May sits on a bench outside petting her cats.

Morgan strikes viewers as young, naïve, and trying desperately (and unsuccessfully) to be cool. Elly May stands up to greet him and he is rendered speechless – literally – making these odd coughing noises as he is flabbergasted by her good looks. She finally asks whether they’re going to school or not and the pair heads off and we next see them walking through the halls of the Beverly Hills High School. Elly May says hi to everyone she passes, as Morgan tells people that she’s with him.

“I’m trying to be friendly, but these folks don’t seem to want to say hi back, they sure are shy,” Elly May says to Morgan. He replies that they are losers and none of them are worth over $300 million. We see an ATM machine and a roving cappuccino cart during the school scenes, but the school doesn’t really have these, they were added for the movie.

The captain of the wrestling team stops them in the hall and demands Morgan’s lunch money. They show up at wrestling practice later because Elly May wants to wrestle Derek. The coach says she needs a signed permission slip, so she returns the next day, ready to wrestle.

Morgan shows up with a bunch of his friends to support her and keep things fair. “Come on, baby, let’s wrestle,” Elly May says to Derek. The gym starts filling up, and it cuts to a scene of girls in the bathroom. A cell phone rings and the girl that answers says, “fight in the gym,” and they all run out.

Elly May quickly starts using her Arkansas wrestling moves, including the “hickory nut crunch” on Derek, as he tells her none of them are legal but is obviously in pain. She ends up swinging him around and throwing him into his friends. The coach blows his whistle, walks up, and says, “young lady, I think we found a new team captain.”

The birthday party scene in The Beverly Hillbillies

Dolly Parton makes a guest appearance at Jed’s birthday party, one of the best scenes in The Beverly Hillbillies. She sings him a birthday song, complete with the line, “Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Jed Clampett, they spent a fortune on me for you!”

“All I want is for you to be happy,” Jed says to Elly May as they stand outside on the deck overlooking the city. She tells him that he just wants her to be happy too. They go inside and he blows out the candles on his birthday cake. That’s when Dolly comes out and starts singing, much to everyone’s surprise.

Dolly invites Jed up to get a look at him and says they need a speech. That’s when he proposes to Laura (who is going by Lauret and still pretending to be French at this point). Tyler is celebrating in the background, while Mr. Drysdale, Ms. Hathaway, Jethro, and Granny all look stunned and confused.

Dolly’s next song is all about love being the best gift, and just needing someone to love, and Laura keeps looking at Jed and batting her eyelashes. It drives us as the viewers nuts because we know what she’s really up to.

Parton had starred in the movie 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin and Dabney Coleman, so this was a fun reunion for the three of them.

The granny kidnapping scene in The Beverly Hillbillies

Granny is famous for her Hillbilly medicine and has a large outdoor area at the mansion where she concocts her remedies. In this scene, we see her working on several remedies and testing them. Then, she overhears Tyler and Laura talking and discovers they are trying to steal Jed’s money, so she confronts them. They grab her, gag, her, and tie her up, Laura says, “Shut up, you old, hag.”

After they kidnap Granny and put her in the car, Tyler and Laura are driving her through the streets of Beverly Hills. This is one of many scenes where the palm tree-lined streets of the city make an appearance. We also see Jethro driving a Rolls-Royce owned by Drysdale on Rodeo Drive. Tyler and Laura are taking Granny to the Los Viejos Retirement Home, where she is locked up.

The shoot the laptop scene in The Beverly Hillbillies

After Granny is kidnapped and sent to Los Viejos Retirement Home (Los viejos means old people in Spanish), Ms. Hathaway sneaks in, dressed as a nurse, to break her out. These scenes were shot in a studio in Los Angeles. Granny drinks one of her elixirs and is revived – they sprint through the halls.

Meanwhile, at the wedding, Tyler is set up in the back with his laptop. We see on the screen that everything is ready to transfer $1 billion from Jed’s account – all Tyler has to do is press enter. The reverend calls the wedding to order and starts reading the airplane safety instructions.

Then, Ms. Hathaway and Granny head to the wedding, crashing into the scene in a Monster truck they drive over a line of parked cars, right before the reverend is about to pronounce them man and wife. Tyler and Laura run off together and are going to transfer the money anyway. Laura says, “If I can’t have their money, nobody should.”

“I’m ruined,” Mr. Drysdale keeps repeating as he discovers what Tyler has done since he’s a bank employee. Then, Ms. Hathaway intervenes once again, taking a shotgun and shooting the laptop.

Conclusion
The Beverly Hillbillies film didn’t quite live up to the stellar reputation that the television sitcom series had, but it was still funny and introduced a whole new audience to the Clampetts, Granny, and Jethro. The movie also featured Buddy Ebsen, the original Jed Clampett, making a cameo in his final movie. Another co-star of the movie was an orangutan, who was Jethro’s pet and constant companion, right through until the end of the movie, where he hangs out with one of the bridesmaids at the wedding.

The police arrived at the end of the wedding scene and arrested Laura and Tyler. Just before that, Jed declares that they should have “one hellacious shindig” since there won’t be any “hitchin” and everyone starts dancing and having a good time. Jethro dances with Ms. Hathaway. Ellie confronts Laura and throws her, that’s when she lands with the police. The Arkansas hillbilly family members and the Beverly Hills residents all have a good time together. It’s not quite the same as the television series, but it’s definitely worth watching.