God's Little Acre

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God's Little Acre is a 1933 novel by Erskine Caldwell, which was filmed in 1958 by director Anthony Mann and lensed in black and white by master cameraman Ernie Haller [1]. The novel was so controversial that a literary board in New York attempted to censor it, leading to the author's being arrested and tried for obscenity. Exonerated after a jury trial, the author counter-sued the literary society for false arrest and malicious prosecution.

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No less controversial was the film some twenty-five years later, 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 southern United 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.

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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 after the bankruptcy of United Artists in the mid-1980s, the film is now in the public domain.

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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).

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A stirring musical track in the form of a ballad plays as the camera freezes on - and then pulls back from - a depiction of a distant bridge over an equally distant, slowly moving river. The camera is located so far away that it is not at all clear whether human figures should be seen in the foliage of the banks, or by the bridge. This scene has great significance in the film because it is nearly the same as the last scene in the film. The shot may also have been influenced by Jean Renoir's film (shot eight years earlier), The River where much of the symbolism of a river relates to the appearance of an unplundered genealogical reserve that current generations ought to be guaranteed from previous generations, but which are otherwise denied. In any case, the majority of the film lacks references to the river, and it never reappears until the last scene.

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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.

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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.

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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 Lawson (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.

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[edit] Storming of the mills
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.


[edit] Riot leaves one dead
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.


[edit] Where is God's little acre?
The viewer should not be settled with the trite explanation of what God's little acre really is. On the one hand, Ty Ty repeatedly vowed to give God all the treasure he found in a particular acre of his land, in the nature of a tithing, the last scene to the movie implies that the acre is not what it appears to be, and might even be the river that runs through the south, bringing moisture to the crops that need it so dearly. Ty Ty has been digging holes twenty or thirty feet deep, never once reaching the water table. His land is unusually dry and barren; it needs irrigation to produce any crops.

"God's little acre" may not refer to a part of Ty Ty's farm, but rather to the land on which the mills stand, which according to Communist doctrine ought rightly to belong to the workers employed there.

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Ty Ty's Explanation
Occupying a different acre of land every year, God's Little Acre seems to wander randomly about Ty Ty's farm. The book ends with Ty Ty's delivering a homily to his children that the real point of his dedicating an acre of land to God, was not in the amount of the money that the acre could produce, but the importance of his having God's interest close to him at home, and always immediately accessible for that very proximity; with that said, he decides to put God's Little Green Acre directly under the house where they lived. The discerning reader of the book, however, quickly notes the remarkable extent of the family's moral bankruptcy, and cheapness of life from the deaths of Will (the Marxist rabble-rouser, dying at the hands of the woolen mill's security guards) and Jim Leslie (demanding repayment of a loan, trespassing into Ty Ty's house to rape Griselda (in lieu of the loan's repayment), and consequently dying from a shotgun blast). Seen in that light, the barrenness of God's Little Acre, no matter where it is located, is commensurate with the barrenness of Ty Ty's land, and equal to the misapplication of his labors. If Ty Ty is a divine steward of land that is dedicated to God, it implies a complete disrespect for the duties at hand, and a peculiar over attention to the basest of human needs. Even if Ty Ty has misapplied his labors, the book offers us an interesting contrast to his situation. When Ty Ty drives over state lines to borrow money from Jim Leslie, the book mentions how Jim's wife was afflicted with venereal disease, apparently not brought on by her husband, but rather something that just happened.


[edit] Cast
Actor Role
Robert Ryan Ty Ty Walden, a widower
Aldo Ray Will Thompson
Tina Louise Griselda
Buddy Hackett Pluto Swint
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 Lawson, the albino


[edit] External links
God's Little Acre at the Internet Movie Database

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_Little_Acre"
Categories: Articles to be split | 1933 novels | American novels | 1958 films | United Artists films | Drama films | Films based on fiction books | Public domain films | Films directed by Anthony Mann | English-language films

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gla1958.jpg

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God's Little Acre (1958)
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Register or login to rate this title User Rating: 6.9/10 (313 votes)
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Overview
Director:Anthony Mann

Writers:Erskine Caldwell (novel)
Philip Yordan (front for Ben Maddow)
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Release Date:23 September 1958 (West Germany) more
Genre:Drama more
Tagline:Love! Hate! Pride! Passion! Rampant, Riotous In the Heat of a Southern Sun!
Plot Summary:A poor farmer is obsessed with finding gold on his land supposedly buried by his grandfather. To find... more
Plot Synopsis:This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis
Plot Keywords:Backwoods / Prospector / Extramarital Affair / Albino / Family more
Awards:2 nominations more
User Comments:"Tobacco Road" redux more

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Cast (Complete credited cast)

Robert Ryan ... Ty Ty Walden
Aldo Ray ... Bill 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
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Create a character page for: Ty Ty WaldenBill ThompsonPluto Swint, Sheriff CandidateBuck WaldenDarlin' JillShaw WaldenRosamundJim LeslieUncle FelixDave DawsonWatchmanFarm Hand with HoeIrate WomanGriselda Walden, Ty Ty's daughter-in-law-----------more...

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Additional Details
Parents Guide:Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:118 min / UK:110 min
Country:USA
Language:English
Color:Black and White
Aspect Ratio:1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:West Germany:18 (f) / Finland:K-16 / Sweden:15
Filming Locations:Stockton, California, USA
MOVIEmeter: 10% since last week why?
Company:Security Pictures Inc. more

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Trivia:Film debut of Tina Louise. more

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User Comments (Comment on this title)
6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful:-
"Tobacco Road" redux, 22 January 2006


Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Erskine Caldwell's two most popular books ("Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre") were both made into controversial films, but John Ford's 1941 film-adaptation of "Tobacco Road" made it to the screen with memorably eccentric characters and smoothly segued from absurdity to pathos. Anthony Mann's work on "God's Little Acre" is appropriately uneven (that's Caldwell's tone after all) but the switch from ridiculousness to high drama is fitful here and doesn't come off. That's not the fault of the performers, however. Robert Ryan makes a big effort to be loose as patriarch of a Georgia dirt-farm family looking for buried gold on his land, Jack Lord and Vic Morrow are fine as his sons, Tina Louise is torrid as his daughter-in-law who is not-so-secretly in love with unemployed factory worker Aldo Ray. Ray's desperate, lusty character is really the hero of this story (and with his big hairy arms, Ray is more than adept at taking on all comers), but the pacing is slow and a sub-plot about an albino youngster (Michael Landon!) doesn't lead anywhere. The picture is all over the place, but only when it settles into a tight, melodramatic groove near the end does it take on some meaning. For the first hour, "God's Little Acre" is a big, empty hole. **1/2 from ****

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God's Little Acre (1958)
Overview New York Times Review Cast, Credits & Awards Readers' Reviews Similar Movies
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Buy From Amazon Read the New York Times Review »
By A. H. WEILER
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Tina Louise, Buddy Hackett
Rating: NR
Review Summary
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

Full New York Times Review »

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GOD'S LITTLE ACRE 1958 ( ALDO RAY & TINA LOUISE ) NEW Item number: 300180488056

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