Main Cast: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Tina Louise, Buddy Hackett, Jack Lord
Release Year: 1958
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
Erskine Caldwell's steamy novel God's Little Acre was given a film adaptation in 1958. A heavily grayed-up Robert Ryan plays Ty Ty Walden, the patriarch of a slovenly backwoods family. As Ty Ty digs around his farm in search of gold (which he has yet to find), his son in law Bill Thompson (Aldo Ray) carries on an adulterous affair with the sluttish Griselda (Tina Louise). Comedy relief is provided by the dimwitted Pluto (Buddy Hackett). Others in the cast include future TV stars Jack Lord as Buck Walden and Michael Landon as Ty Ty's albino farmhand. A flop when first released, God's Little Acre made back its cost on the TV rental circuit; today, it is in the public domain, available to everyone, even the "under 18s" who were prohibited from seeing it back in 1958. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In its time, God's Little Acre was a notorious adaptation of a scandalous novel. Seen today, its notoriety seems overblown, although it does maintain an effective degree of sultriness and eroticism. Acre would probably be an even better film if it hadn't been forced to tone down the sexual quotient, but even had this been the case, it would still have been an uneven film. This is largely due to the source material, which was itself an uneven blend of comedy and drama; in adapting it for the screen, the creators have not found a way to meld these tones, causing Acre to be a bit schizophrenic. That said, the comedy is often genuinely amusing, and the drama, if overwrought and melodramatic, is still often quite affecting. Credit goes largely to its very fine cast, many of whom give performances that will surprise viewers who know them only from their later television work. This is especially true of Tina Louise, whose Griselda has all the sex appeal of Ginger Grant but is a much more rounded and realistic character. Louise attacks Griselda head on; this is a character for whom sex is a necessity, rather than just a ploy, someone who both cherishes and regrets her sensuality, and Louise reveals much greater depth than she would subsequently be allowed to. Jack Lord is also surprisingly intense, a fierce presence at times, and even Buddy Hackett manages to be a character rather than simply "Buddy Hackett." Aldo Ray is impressively macho. But it's Robert Ryan who holds the film together, with a well-modulated turn that shows just how good the actor could be when given a chance. On the whole, God's Little Acre is a good-but-not-great film, but it does provide the cast with a very nice showcase. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The film was as controversial as the novel, though this time there was no prosecution for obscenity. Though both book and film were laced throughout with racy innuendo calling into question the issue of marital fidelity, it was the film adaptation that may have been the more alarming, inasmuch as it portrayed a popular uprising, or Marxist insurrection, in the southernUnited States by millworkers laid off from work and trying to gain control of the factory equipment which their jobs depend on. Philip Yordan was officially given credit for the screenplay, but it was actually by Ben Maddow. Since Maddow was blacklisted for suspected Communist activities during the 1950s Red Scare, working without credit was the only way he could successfully submit screenplays.
When first released, audiences under eighteen years of age were prohibited from viewing what were perceived to be numerous sexy scenes throughout, though in recent decades the film's scandalous reputation has diminished. Though ultimately a box office failure upon first release, the film has frequently been aired on television. Due to a lapse in copyright registration after the bankruptcy of United Artists in the mid-1980s, the film is now in the public domain in the United States.[citation needed]
The film follows Ty Ty Walden (Robert Ryan), a widower, and his three daughters, living in the backwoods of Georgia during the Great Depression. While Ty Ty searches for gold on his farm, his son-in-law Will (Aldo Ray) cheats on his wife Rosamund (Helen Westcott) by committing adultery with Griselda (Tina Louise).
The movie opens with Pluto Swint (Buddy Hackett) arriving at Ty Ty's farm to let the farmer know he's running for sheriff, and would appreciate it if he'd remember him when it came time to come to the polls and cast his ballot. When he arrives, he is invited to come around back where Darlin' Jill (Fay Spain) is taking a bath in an outdoor bathtub positioned near a handpump and spigot. She asks him to pump some more water into the bathtub but the camera never dips lower than the top of the bathtub.
Ty Ty spends most of his time digging holes in his farm, constantly searching for the treasure his grandfather left him. Consequently, the farm has suffered from years of neglect. He could have turned a profit any time during those years if only he had bought some seed and planted it in the fields, but believing that a vast amount of gold had been buried somewhere on his property, he thinks that it is only a matter of time before he finds the place it was buried. In the book, Ty Ty remarks to Pluto that gold nuggets have been found on his land, here and there, but never more than a nugget or two. In the movie, however, his constant searching for buried gold appears to be making his farm worth less with each coming year.
The seductive lure of easy gold a mere shovel or two away is actually leading him to squander his inheritance. If his real treasure lies in his daughters, the viewer is invited to gauge the depth of that genealogical reserve, inasmuch as Darlin' Jill appears to be a woman of equally easy morals.
In belief that having an albino human with him in his quest for treasure will bring him great fortune, Ty Ty transports and wrongfully imprisons a man, Dave Dawson (Michael Landon), with white hair and pink eyes, and demands he help him locate the buried treasure. He reasons that it is not actually wrongful detainment because the albino at any time could lead him to the treasure, and thereby earn his release.
Aside from the racy bathtub scene at the start of the film, the scene that most prompted calls for "God's Little Acre" to be blacklisted was that depicting the storming of the mills. A mob of angry locals stage a spontaneous insurrection in response to the mills' owners' recent decision to shut down the mills. Arriving in the middle of the night in ever-increasing numbers, the workers storm the main building, ignoring cries for order. They scale fences and smash the locks on the mill's gate. After they enter the factory, successfully flipping the circuitbreakers on, they revive the factory into a semblance of life.
Since the entire town's economy depends on the mills, the dilemma the people face is evocative of the dilemma faced in the 1986 film Gung Ho.
Hearing of the rioters' breaking and entering, the sheriff comes to the factory site and shoots an unarmed rioter for trespassing. At this point the tide in the county elections turns irreversibly. The populist Pluto Swint is elected county sheriff, replacing the incumbent.
