I'm from Arkansas

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.

Oddly enough Lew Landers director of such horrors classics as "The Raven" (1935) and "The Return of the Vampire" (1943) is at helm here bringing forth to us this low-below-low budget tired redneck stereotype filled too musical-hardly a comedy.

After it makes national headlines that Esmeralda a pig gave birth to eighteen piglets multiple visitors overrun the overly southern small town of Pitchfork. Amongst them are - an all male band who grew up there, an all female band who plan on using the publicity for their own advantage, and two spies from an industrial meat factory who were sent in order to find out what "secret formula" caused that many pigs to be born.

With this kind of a ridiculous plot the film takes an extremely lazy route and gives each of it's characters only one clichéd characteristic as an identifier. You have your old fools (Slim Summerville), Cynical gals (Iris Adrian), feisty elderly ladies (Maude Eburne), dashing young men (Bruce Bennett), a somewhat well known musical sensation of the time appearing as themselves (Jimmy Wakely), and it just goes on.

Summerville is enjoyable especially while bantering with tenacious Eburne though to a certain extant as his mumbling southerner Walter Brennan-esque routine gets stale real quick. Adrian never got another main starring role which was lucky since her brassiness here is spread so thin it's pretty tiring after a while, Bennett's nothing special but watchable. Wakley should not have been present at all the action stops dead as soon as there's a musical number and despite them being pleasant to one's ear they're basically noting more than just filler.

At seventy minutes long this tiny and hidden for a good reason picture does provide some entertainment when it doesn't mainly and heavily rely on poor attempts at screwball comedy-like humor.

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.

"Guy takes a girl for a sleigh ride in the middle of July!"

Juniper and Ma Alden's pig Esmeralda has 18 piglets which apparently is news back in 1944. This is the quirkiest romantic comedy with music, ventriloquism, southern accents, and playing acting at being "yokels".

The real reason to watch this odd gem is really the music, particularly Jimmy Wakely and The Sunshine Girls. I particularly loved their western take on "You are my Sunshine". The other highlight is the handsome star Bruce Bennett, who plays Bob Hamline. Bob and his band take a break down in Arkansas in Pitchfork Springs, Esmeralda's hometown...which conveniently subverts a slick company from taking advantage of Ma Alden with the help of a theater girl he has his eye on named Doris.

Another musical highlight is " If You Can't Go Right, Don't Go Wrong" by Jimmy Wakely and The Pied Pipers.

If you are a music aficionado I highly recommend checking this quirky film out...especially if you like The Pied Pipers and their music like "The Hit of The Season".

While this is a somewhat entertaining movie, I have to wonder how people from Arkansas truly felt when they saw this movie (I highly doubt that this movie played in Arkansas anywhere). Playing the residents there as slow, stupid hillbillies is not exactly the way to promote the state, and would NEVER be made today. The story here is quite simple, several groups go down to Pitchfork, Arkansas to exploit the town's notoriety when the town pig has a litter of 14 piglets. Along the way, hillbilly music happens. Lots and lots of it. I love the yodelers. The rest I can take or leave. Not a bad movie, it's just terribly stereotypical.