Them Southern Story Movies, Pull Me in Every time!
With the ubiquitousness of streaming services on the Internet these days, a movie about somewhere in the American South is easily stumbled upon. And for this reporter/movie fan it was “God’s Little Acre” from 1958.
Of course, it helps to find such a gem of a genre-movie like “God’s Little Acre,” when the storyline has a star such as the legendary Tina Louise in the cast.
This was her motion-picture debut. And I reckoned she would simply be a “walk on” character as her stunning figure and beauty would be a rallying point for an off- beat comedy.
Well, ‘surprise, surprise!’ What seemed to begin as a Li’l Abner romp, about a man (Ty Ty Walden) (portrayed by Robert Ryan) digging for his grandfather’s gold on the family farm in rural Georgia had unexpected twists and turns.
Lots of familiar “family drama” is in this, similar to Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, as Tina Louise and an extremely inebriated masculine personality of Aldo Ray push the screen to make it crackle with sensual tension.
Louise’s character of the daughter-in-law Griselda, is married to one of the man, Ty Ty’s sons on the farm. Yet she still has feelings for Bill, portrayed by Ray.
Bill is married to Rosamund Ty Ty’s oldest daughter. Rosamund is in love with Bill but not as much as Bill has feelings for Griselda.
The chemistry between Griselda and Bill expresses an energy that right from the get-go speaks of a libido going off the rails.
Yet as Rosamund prefers to see it, the sensual tension is because her husband Bill needs work. The closing of the cotton mill in the nearby town of Peachtree has Bill on edge for months.
Like Ty Ty, he is stubborn in his belief. Bill believes that the cotton mill is the only viable work for a man like him. “No farm life for me,” he says.
All the men in the story are strapping and hard working. Whether they are on the farm or a “factory man” as Bill describes himself. The women in this story are either aching or itching, passionately eager to love a man.
Envy and resentment is palpable of course. Yet “God’s Little Acre” provides an unusual overview of a ‘Southern Story.’
Ty Ty’s other daughter Darlin’ Jill has the county sheriff-wannabe, Pluto (portrayed by Buddy Hackett) wrapped around her little finger as it were.
The scene where she urges Pluto to pump some more water at the bathtub where she’s bathing/cooling herself off amid the hot weather is reminiscent of Tennessee Williams’ ‘Baby Doll.’
The characters and bits and pieces of the storyline of “God’s Little Acre” are all familiar. Be it in Harper Lee’s work, Carson McCullers or even in Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory,” they all have an emotional cadence that’s very familiar, beguiling and upsetting all at the same time. 
Ty Ty as head of the family just wants everyone to stay together and be happy. And sooner or later, after 15 years of digging holes in the ground, “scientifically” he’s believes, Ty Ty is bound to find grandpa’s gold. Even when this belief is illogical and in denial of the facts, Ty Ty is so certain.
A heartfelt earnestness to have honor and be respectable and an unusual grandiosity go together in these Southern stories. And they tend to be the main ingredients of most Southerner people in these situations. 
The juxtaposition of absurd comedy and smoldering sensuality seems predictable.
Yes! It does implode. Only, not as anticipated. The unexpected twist is in the “men out of work,” frustration.
Bill wants to go back to work, no mater what! Not even the pleading of an alluring Griselda will deter him from forcing the cotton factory to open.
Here’s where “God’s Little Acre” makes a sudden and unexpected swerve into “On The Waterfront.”
With a bravado like Marlon Brando, Ray’s performance is beefy, bold but tragically foolhardy.
All of the men in the quirky comedy-turned serious drama are short-sighted and stubborn.
Yet, like Griselda and the other women in the story, you have empathy for them.
While the movie and story-line is somewhat ‘dated,’ Roger’s Movie Nation blog applauded director Anthony Mann’s ability to bring Erskine Caldwell’s 1933 novel to the big screen.
“Here, he guides a stellar cast, says the blog, that hurls itself into accents, melodramatics and stereotypes in a story of fake piety and pointless poverty, sex, lust and sin in 1950s Georgia.”
While the time-frame of “God’s Little Acre” in the move is the 1950’s, obviously, to me, it’s atmosphere is from a time even earlier, when a peculiar ‘caste system’ dominated every aspect of Southerner culture.
Louise gives a memorable performance for which she won a Golden Globe award.
For fans of William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, “God’s Little Acre” will surprise. Check it out on Tubi or YouTube.
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