God's Little Acre (1958)

In the 1950s, a poor Georgia cotton farmer and his sons search for the gold presumably buried on the farm by their grandfather but problems related to poverty, marital infidelity, unemployment and booze threaten to destroy their family.

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Philip Yordan (screenplay), Erskine Caldwell (based on the world's best selling novel by)

Stars:

Robert Ryan, Tina Louise, Aldo Ray

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Robert Ryan	...	Ty Ty Walden
Aldo Ray	...	Will Thompson
Buddy Hackett	...	Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate
Jack Lord	...	Buck Walden
Fay Spain	...	Darlin' Jill
Vic Morrow	...	Shaw Walden
Helen Westcott	...	Rosamund
Lance Fuller	...	Jim Leslie
Rex Ingram	...	Uncle Felix
Michael Landon	...	Dave Dawson
Russell Collins	...	Watchman
Davis Roberts	...	Farm Hand with Hoe
Janet Brandt	...	Irate Woman
Tina Louise	...	Griselda Walden, Ty Ty's Daughter-in-Law

Storyline

A poor farmer is obsessed with finding gold on his land supposedly buried by his grandfather. To find it he conveniently moves a marker out of his way that designates the land on which it rests as as God's Little Acre, where anything that comes from the ground will go to God's work. Eventually he abducts an albino to help him find the gold. Meanwhile, his daughter-in-law is suspected of fooling around with a labor activist out of work since the mill closed, and a local political hopeful actively seeks his daughter's hand in marriage.

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Plot Keywords:

search for gold | hairy chest | southern literature | rural setting | melodrama | 

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Taglines:

Love! Hate! Pride! Passion! Rampant, Riotous In the Heat of a Southern Sun!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 September 1958 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre

Filming Locations:

San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Security Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A 1967 re-release attempted to appeal to the new generation by playing up the sex in the advertisements. The '67 poster featured the drawing of a topless woman underneath a bare-chested man on a bed, as well as a topless (but chaste) photo of co-star Fay Spain that was definitely not in the picture itself! For this re-release, Tina Louise was given top-billing and Michael Landon went from tenth billing in 1958 to second billing this time.

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Goofs

When Pluto and Darlin' Jill are parked in his truck by a field, a tree can be seen through Pluto's window. An external shot of the truck shows fencing wire in front of the tree not visible previously.

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Quotes

Ty Ty Walden: [Expressing his contempt for alcohol] It's all the devil's brew. Cleanest drinking water right in our own back yard. I owe my health and long life to just plain well water.

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Connections

Featured in Michael Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love (1991)

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Soundtracks

God's Little Acre
(uncredited)
Written by Elmer Bernstein and Erskine Caldwell
Performed by Bill Lee (uncredited)

User Reviews

Desperate Lives

Oh what miserable characters. Everyone in this story is unhappy, and desperate for something: love, sex, a job, votes. But mostly, they're desperate for change.

Ty Ty (Robert Ryan), a desperately poor dirt farmer in rural Georgia, digs holes on his property looking for gold supposedly buried by an ancestor. Ty Ty, a religious man, dedicates a small area of his property to God, unless that small area happens to be where the gold is buried; in which case he will re-locate God's parcel of land somewhere else, and keep the gold for himself.

His five grown children, a mix of male hicks and trashy vixens, are as miserable and desperate as Ty Ty. They and their spouses fight among themselves over every little thing, including Ty Ty's delusional behavior. In one scene toward the end, Ty Ty tells his kids: "God didn't put us here to scrap and fight each other all the time ... I've tried all my life to keep a peaceful family ... if you'd just stop fightin'. To which one of his sons barks out: "You talk like an old fool". Later, Ty Ty angrily responds in a preachy tone: "If I was you, when I went to bed tonight, I'd get down on my knees and ... try talking to God a little."

The script's plot is too drawn-out, given the premise; and the structure is terrible. Ty Ty is presumably the script's protagonist. Yet, a son-in-law named Bill (Aldo Ray) carries many of the scenes. Both dialogue and acting are dreadfully overwrought. The ending seems tacked on.

The film's B&W lighting is probably the best element; it's quite good. Compared to other performances, I thought Buddy Hackett gave a pleasantly restrained performance.

If you like overwrought, melodramatic stories with lots of talk, and centered around ignorant Southern hillbillies, this is the film for you.