God's Little Acre (film)
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| Directed by | Anthony Mann |
| Produced by | Sidney Harmon |
| Written by | Philip Yordan Ben Maddow Novel Erskine Caldwell |
| Starring | Robert Ryan Aldo Ray Jack Lord Tina Louise Buddy Hackett |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Ernest Haller |
| Editing by | Richard Meyer |
| Studio | Security Pictures |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | August 13, 1958 |
| Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
God's Little Acre is a 1958 American film of Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel.[1][2][3] It was directed by Anthony Mann and shot in black and white by master cinematographer Ernest Haller.
The film was as controversial as the novel, although unlike its source material 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 laid-off millworkers trying to gain control of the factory equipment on which their jobs depended. Philip Yordan was officially given credit for the screenplay, but it was actually by Ben Maddow. Since Maddow was blacklisted for his radical, and suspected Communist activities during the 1950s Red Scare, working without credit was the only way he could successfully submit screenplays.
When it was 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.
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[edit] Plot
Ty Ty Walden (Robert Ryan), a widower, and his two daughters, live 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) with Griselda (Tina Louise).
The movie opens with Ty Ty and his sons digging a deep hole. He has been digging for gold on his land for 15 years. Pluto Swint (Buddy Hackett) arrives 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. Swint 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 (the camera never dips lower than the top of the bathtub). He is asked to keep his eyes closed, but takes a pleasurable peek.
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 where it was buried. (In the book, Ty Ty remarks to Swint 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 the belief that having an albino with him in his quest for treasure will bring him great fortune, Ty Ty transports and wrongfully imprisons Dave Dawson (Michael Landon), a man with white hair and pink eyes, demanding that he help him locate the buried treasure. Ty Ty 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. In anticipation of a potential find he changes the location of a plot of land allocated to the church in a tithing relationship (known as God's Little Acre, hence the title), in order to keep any gold found there for himself. He moves the plot's marker, a large, ramshackle cross, to the side of the house. but lo and behold that is exactly where the divining rod in the hands of the albino comes to rest, supposedly indicating where the gold is buried. However, seeing that the divining rod was pulling the albino towards the side of the house, Ty Ty had again pulled the marker out of the ground explaining that God told him to move it, thereby absolving him from giving any gold found in this new spot to the church. He replants the marker farther away on the edge of a pond for it "to be cooler".
In the middle of the night Will leaves his house, followed by Griselda. He breaks open the mill's gates and enters the property. At first she distracts him from his purpose and they kiss. He then escorts her back to the gates and asks the growing (but in the film relatively silent) crowd to restrain her. He reenters and turns on the power, and the machines reactivate to the cheers of the crowd.
Hearing the rioters' assembly and the mill's power turned on, the caretaker comes from an inside office and shoots Will for trespassing. He staggers outside and the crowd's cheers turn to silence. They carry his body back to his house. Griselda enters to tell his wife the bad news, but she cries out that she already knows what has happened.
(Aside from the racy bathtub scene and several shots of Griselda's pounding cleavage, what most prompted calls for "God's Little Acre" to be blacklisted was the storming of the mills. 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.)
Implicitly, at this point the tide in the county elections turns irreversibly. The populist Pluto Swint is elected sheriff, replacing the incumbent.
The Walden family squabble after Will's funeral, particularly over Griselda's actions at the mill, and the numerous affections which she attracts from the other sons. The family ultimately decide to give up searching for gold.
The film ends with them contentedly ploughing for the first time in years. Ty Ty finds the blade of an old shovel in the ground, and speculates about whether the gold might lie in that spot. As he begins digging again, the camera pans to the pond and the final resting place of the marker for God's Little Acre.
[edit] Cast
- Robert Ryan as Ty Ty Walden, a widower
- Aldo Ray as Will Thompson
- Tina Louise as Griselda
- Buddy Hackett as Pluto Swint
- Jack Lord as Buck Walden
- Fay Spain as Darlin' Jill
- Vic Morrow as Shaw Walden
- Helen Westcott as Rosamund
- Lance Fuller as Jim Leslie
- Rex Ingram as Uncle Felix
- Michael Landon as Dave Dawson, the albino
[edit] Copyright registration and renewal
God's Little Acre was registered (LP 10695) for copyright 9 May 1958 by Security Pictures, Inc. as copyright owner[4] and renewed under RE 304-495 25 September 1986 by MPH Films as proprietor of copyright in a work made for hire.[5]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Variety film review; May 14, 1958, page 6.
- ^ Harrison's Reports film review; May 17, 1958, page 78.
- ^ Filmfacts; 1958, page 123
- ^ Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959), page 128.
- ^ Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain (1950-1959), page 609.
[edit] External links
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