I'm from Arkansas

This film is not quite a classic, but it did have one delightful surprise for me.

Iris Colleen Summers, aka Mary Ford, Les Paul's singing partner, is about 20 years old in this film and sings in three songs as one of the Sunshine Girls trio for Jimmy Wakely's band. She has a brief solo in the first song. It was her only film appearance before working with Les Paul.

Les Paul and Mary Ford had numerous top ten hits in the early 1950s, including "How High the Moon" and "Tiger Rag".

Otherwise, this film includes a couple examples of Cliff Nazarro's famous doubletalk and two delightful yodeling songs from Carolina Cotton.

I'd say the music takes a front seat to the comedy here.

People flock to a small Arkansas town after a prize pig delivers another huge litter of young. Much music and some humor results.

Think Petticoat Junction and Green Acres or Hee Haw and then go even more rural and backward. This is a real hillbilly comedy where all of the people in the town look like your stereotypical hillbillies with the hats and the beards. Its a Snuffy Smith cartoon brought to life, only more so (Actually Snuffy had two live action films made about him). Amusing to a point, the problem for me was that the film is almost a steady stream of country music. Don't get me wrong I like country music, but there is so much of it here that there really isn't a plot so much as spoken passages to get you to the next musical number. The result is everyone is a cliché of one sort or another, simply because its the easiest way of telling who anyone is. The jokes which are one liners or arise out of the clichés are okay, but very few of them are laugh out loud funny since many are also forms of ones we've heard before.

Can you tell I'm not a fan? Your tolerance for low brow countrified jokes and "constant" country music performances will determine your mileage.

Wacky Petticoat Junction type movie now in public domain.

Townsfolk all move slow.

Esmeralda the town pig just gave birth to a slew of liberals.

Not sure how many cuz no one can count.

We even get to see the Pathe chicken for a minute! Huh? What's that doing there? Anyway the pig gets press all over the globe.

A show producer reads about it and wants some of the action.

He takes the troupe to Arkansas.

The plan is to find out what made the pig spawn so many liberal.

Craziness ensues.

It's a very watchable movie that could never be made today.

A lot of familiar players try very hard to make this PRC film somewhat entertaining and it does succeed when it comes to the country musical acts. But the cheapness of a typical PRC film make I'm From Arkansas barely passable entertainment even in the areas it was marketed to in red state America.

I'm From Arkansas probably never saw a New York opening, these kinds of films went right into general release in the south and west where they made money. I remember back when I was in the Army Reserves and stationed in such places as Fort Campbell, Kentucky or Fort Stewart, Georgia I saw films that I would never see at any neighborhood theater in Brooklyn. No doubt it was the same in the Forties.

It's not quite The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, but they've had a miracle of sorts in Pitchfork, Arkansas. Maude Eburne's sow Esmeralda gave birth to a little of 18 piglets. That passes for news and you'd have thought the Dionnes had another set of quintuplets when it goes out over the air.

An all girl orchestra headed by Iris Adrian and managed by Clif Nazarro decides to take advantage of the publicity and they head for Pitchfork. But so does Bruce Bennett's country band and they have a slight advantage as Bennett is from Pitchfork.

The villain of the piece is hog butcher John Hamilton who sends two of his men to buy that property figuring that there's some kind of hog aphrodisiac there to make Esmeralda so fertile. There is also a mineral spring that could be beneficial to humans as well. Those city slickers don't know what they're up against when Bennett and Adrian join forces to protect Maude Eburne and her kin.

They even have El Brendel in the cast. Yumpin' Yiminy how did he get to Arkansas.

Some country music acts of the day are on the bill here. Jimmy Wakely sings pretty and Carolina Cotton yodels as good as Roy Rogers.

Still it's a very cheap PRC film and true enough it does stereotype rural folks horribly. Of course not as bad as Deliverance.

There is a splendid performance from the celebrated actor, Slim Summerville in the role of " Juniper Jenkins ". I have fond memories of Slim,s great acting in the Hollywood classics such as "Front Page ",'All quiet on the western front", " Tobacco Road ", etc, etc. His comedy talent was manifest when he was partnered with Zasu Pitts in a very entertaining series of comedy films. People still delight in seeing him with Shirley Temple in : Captain January" and 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ". It is a tragedy that he died so young but I am thankful for his great legacy. But this film has so much also to enjoy in the many delightful songs by very talented Country Music performers. This film is one of my favorites.