God's Little Acre

One of those movies that I had seen part of some time back on TCM but never actually watched in full was God's Little Acre. With that in mind, the last time TCM ran it I made it a point to record it so that I could finally watch it in full and do the requisite post on it here. Well, having gotten around to watching it before it expired from the DVR, it's time to write up the review.

Ty Ty Walden (Robert Ryan) is a farmer living in one of those dirt-poor parts of the South in the era that led Variety to write the famous headline "Stix Nix Hick Pix". Or, I suppose you could say he was a farmer since he hasn't been growing anything for quite some time. Instead, he's convinced that his grandfather buried a treasure in gold somewhere on the land and, dammit, Ty Ty is going to find that gold so the family can live on easy street. With that in mind, Ty Ty has been enlisting the aid of two of his sons who still live with him: Buck (Jack Lord), who is married to Griselda (Tina Louise); and Shaw (Vic Morrow). Also living with Ty Ty is a daughter, Darlin' Jill (Fay Spain).

Jill, at least, has a bit of hope to get off the farm and slightly escape this bizarre family dynamic. Visiting the house is sheriff's candidate Pluto Swint (Buddy Hackett, interestingly cast as a sweaty southerner), who has some romantic interest in Jill, although who knows how he's going to make a living if he's not elected sheriff. Having done a slightly better job escaping is daughter Rosamunda (Helen Westcott). She married Will Thompson (Aldo Ray), who worked at the local cotton mill. Unfortunately, that mill has been closed for several months now, putting everybody out of a job. Will, having little hope of a better life, has taken to drink. Not only that, but he's attracted to Griselda, which is a problem since both of them are married to other people.

You wonder how Ty Ty is able to survive financially, and the answer is that he can't really survive financially. And there's only one person he can turn to for help, who is the last of the sons, Jim Leslie (Lance Fuller). Jim got out of this dysfunctional family by marrying a wealthy woman and getting into the side of the cotton business that makes people rich since he seems to have a better head on his shoulders for that sort of thing. Not that he has a good head on his shoulders for dealing with his family, however. Once they all show up he gets sucked into the family dynamic that's threatening to spill over into violence.

Meanwhile, Will gets drunk enough that he decides he's going to reopen the cotton mill. This is, of course, not his decision to make, as he doesn't own the mill. It's going to highly illegal to break into the mill and turn the equipment on, and there are security people out to stop him. This is likely to lead to tragic consequences, although it's an epiphany for the rest of the family....

God's Little Acre was famously steamy upon its first release in 1958. By the standards of 2026, however, it's somewhat tame. It's based on a novel by Erskine Caldwell that's even more nuts because Caldwell had political statements he wanted to make and used the story as an allegory for those. The characters here are way over the top, and how much you like the movie is probably going to depend on how much you can accept these characters as a parody instead of a serious movie. Unfortunately, for me, the second half of the movie devolves into a bad attempt to be too serious, much like a Tennessee Williams play in that regard. On the other hand, it's interesting to see a bunch of people who would go on to bigger fame for their TV work in the near future. In addition to Tina Louise, Jack Lord, and Buddy Hackett, there's also Michael Landon as an albino who is brought to the Walden farm because of a folk belief that albinism gives one the power to find things underground.

I'm glad I finally checked God's Little Acre off my list, but it's a movie I don't know that I'll be revisiting any time soon.