God's Little Acre

Apparently, when "God's Little Acre" first came out, much of it was cut for the theatrical release. Watching the unedited version, one can see why (needless to say, it's all pretty tame to us in the 21st century). Part of it is Tina Louise's very presence - I mean, what man wouldn't want to be stranded on an island with Ginger Grant? - but there's also a scene where Buddy Hackett works a pump for a woman in a bathtub (if that scene isn't a double entendre, then I don't know what is!).

As for the movie itself, this story of a Georgia farmer (Robert Ryan) getting convinced that thar's gold in them thar holes in his garden does quite well. The idea of him tearing up his garden is an effective parallel for how the family gets torn up in the process. As for his friendship with the African-American guy, it's probably debatable whether they were sugar-coating race relations, or if they were encouraging tolerance. There could even be debates about how the movie portrays the South in general (the characters do come across as hicks).

But overall, I recommend this flick. Usually, it would sort of weaken the movie to know that some of the cast members later became famous on TV shows - especially since one was known for seducing romantically incompetent men on a certain island - but they all do very well here. This is certainly a movie worth seeing. And the theme song will probably get stuck in your head. Also starring Aldo Ray, Jack Lord, Fay Spain, Vic Morrow and Michael Landon.

IN this era, when sex is easy, it's great to see all that inhibited lust steaming out over the screen. Aldo Ray and Tina Louise did one jam-up job of showing their passion for one another. Actually, Robert Ryan almost upped the ante from his '7 Days in May' stint where he lectured on the devil women sucking out the vital juices from the soldiers under his command. (That's true, you know. We women would rather suck out vital juices than just about anything.) Anyway, see this back to back with Tobacco Road, and you'll understand completely why all these Yankees think we're products of incest and can barely put 4 grammatical phrases together. No wonder, I am continually fighting off the prejudices of people who are amazed that I wear shoes and didn't marry my 1st cousin.

The writing in here is great: Robert Ryan plays a beautiful balance between an obsessed redneck who is trying to find his grandpappy's gold on his property, and his restrained longing for his son's daughter. His goodness screams out in his scene with his cotton broker son, who made it big. As my own evangelist cousin says, "We call him 'MMM"...our Miserable Millionaire Miser."

And Michael Landon, as the albino teen-ager, scared of the violence from these raging men who have kidnapped him to divine the gold.....what a sight!! Jack Lord, in his pre-Hawaiian Eye days is all wrathful, as he watches his beauteous wife with the NATURAL cleavage longing for the drunken Aldo Ray. Hard to believe the change, but the analogy between the tearing up the yard and sacrificing the peace of his family for the gold hunt...and today's all materialistic, 'if it ain't business, it ain't nothing', lifestyle.....is fantastic....rite smart writin'.

Check it out for a movie that SHOULD be colorized if ever there was one. And that house looks just my Aunt Mattie Seals' home in Talbot County, jawja!!!!! Boy, do I miss it!

I saw this movie soon after it was released when I was seventeen. Recently, I caught it again on late night TV; now, over fifty years later, I still count this one as one of the most interesting collection of oddball characters ever put to film. And all wrapped up in a timeless story about human frailties, family values and impossible dreams.

Without doubt, this is the film that launched Tina Louise's lacklustre career into a series of B-movies of the late fifties and early sixties, followed by seemingly endless appearances in mindless TV drama and sitcoms over the next thirty-five years. What a shame: because I think her debut film role as Griselda Walden set a new standard for the term 'sex appeal' – and once seen, never forgotten, especially her first appearance with sunlight behind her, outlining her entire body through her thin, cotton shift. So, see this film for Tina Louise in action, if for no other reason.

Erskine Caldwell's whole story is definitely worth watching, however. Actually, there are a number of stories beginning with old man Ty Ty Walden (Robert Ryan) and his fifteen-year, frenetic search for his grandfather's gold, supposedly buried somewhere on his farm: with that underlying scenario, Caldwell satirically skewers the lust for wealth that trap too many of us in ephemeral dreams which blind us to the reality around us. Robert Ryan gives his all, in what I regard as one of his best roles.

Interwoven with Ty Ty's quest, we see unfold the bodily lust that Will Thompson (Aldo Ray) has for Griselda, the wife to embittered and jealous Buck Walden (Jack Lord). When Will has the hots for Griselda on a feverish summer night, and they stand in darkness, fingers entwined, at the corner of the house, sweat steaming off their bodies, you see one of the finest pieces of bodily eroticism ever put to film – and an image that's still used today, as the above poster on this page shows.

The lust for power is given its comic turn with Sheriff wannabe Pluto Swint (Buddy Hackett) trying to get votes from all and sundry. With a name like Pluto – on the edge of society physically, mentally and emotionally – how far can he get? Well, he's also pining for the hand in marriage of Ty Ty's other daughter, Darlin' Jill (Fay Spain). With Pluto, Darlin' Jill pulls off an open-air, erotic bathtub scene that must be seen for its bawdy humor and Freudian overtones. Not to be missed...

Wrap all that around Will Thomspon's efforts to power up the bankrupt local cotton mill again, add Ty Ty's visit to his only financially-successful son (to ask for money), Jim Leslie (Lance Fuller), and you have a succession of vignettes that pretty much cover the whole gamut of what it means to be human. Watch for very young Michael Landon (as the albino) and Vic Morrow (as Shaw Walden). Happily, with such an interpersonal imbroglio to appreciate fully, the cast fully delivers. Some argue it's over the top; and so it is, because it's mostly social satire.

One puzzlement: the mise-en-scene looks and feels Depression era, but the presence of mid-1950s autos belies that. One wonders if that was a deliberate ploy by the producer and director. The black-and-white photography is exquisite; the sound track is appropriate, given the social milieu of the times, but I could do without it.

Overall, it's a classic film which, despite winning no awards, should still be seen by all film lovers.

The jaunty title song belies what lies beneath this southern Gothic drama from the ever reliable director Anthony Mann who loads this film with various subtexts.

Robert Ryan gives a marvellous performance as patriarch Ty Ty Walden who has spent years digging up his farmland looking for gold buried by his grandfather sometime in the civil war. Maybe things would had been better if Waldens farmed the land as the family might have turned out better with tighter morals.

Ty Ty has three sons and two daughters. One of the son, jealous, hot headed Buck is married to sultry Griselda but she always had a thing for Will Thompson. He lost her but ended up marrying TY Ty's daughter Rosamund but Will has always pined for Griselda and the closed down mill in the town.

Darlin Jill the youngest daughter is a fee spirited filly who is being courted by Pluto, a fat man running for the job of Sheriff.

Jim Leslie is the son who got away, married into wealth and lives in Augusta but he also has the hots for Griselda and does little to hide it. As Ty Ty comments, some of the men in the family are far from chivalrous when it comes to handling women.

Only Shaw the youngest son tries to keep everyone together but in this pot boiler with different vignettes it is Ty Ty who eventually realises that his quest for gold and digging holes in his field has crated a chasms in his family.

Director Mann brings out fine performances from his cast and I think he had the censor sweating over some of the playful and sensual scenes.

I have to weigh in on the errors in alicecbr's review, since it's featured here on IMDB. I refer to the first paragraph. Robert Ryan wasn't in "Seven Days in May." And there's no lecture in that movie about women sucking juices out of soldiers. The closest thing I can think of is Sterling Hayden in "Dr. Strangelove," who tells Peter Sellers about the Commie plot to sap and impurify our bodily fluids by fluoridating the water. Nothing in it about women, though, just Commies. I'm voting it...unhelpful!

Underrated actors Aldo Ray and Robert Ryan are outstanding in this eccentric bit of Americana from the novel by Erskine Caldwell, which was banned in some towns. The setting on the farm with random holes and piles of dirt is almost surreal in appearance. And there's Tina Louise, and Little Joe Cartwright plays an albino.