God's Little Acre

When Pluto and Darlin' Jill are parked in his truck by a field, a tree can be seen through Pluto's window.

An external shot of the truck shows fencing wire in front of the tree not visible previously.

Although the plot revolves around hillbilly family who has spent years digging dozens of holes around property looking for gold, all of the dirt surrounding holes appears moist and freshly excavated, not dried out and dusty as it would actually be if it been dug out with shovels and exposed to sun for years.

I can't believe Anthony Mann directed this. A director known for tense, psychological, character-driven stories.

Oh what miserable characters. Everyone in this story is unhappy, and desperate for something: love, sex, a job, votes.

Ty Ty Walden, a widower lives in the backwoods of Georgia with his daughters.For the last 15 years he has been searching for gold from his land.

I love Anthony Mann and Robert Ryan is somewhere in the top three of my all time favorites male actors, so I watched this last night on demand. All I could think of was "over the top", "You have got to be kidding me", etc.

Wowza! For 1958 this would have been a "must see" for any man or child past puberty just to see the lustful but married Griselda Walden (Tina Louise) in her first film role where she has three (3) horny men vying for her attention.

. .

Something very different for Robert Ryan. For a change, he is not the embodiment of evil.

"God's Little Acre" surprisingly defied the expectations I had after seeing the credits. I expected Robert Ryan to be corrupt and lascivious, but he instead plays the most optimistic and happy character of his career - even if he is not the brightest bulb on the tree.

The New York Times review of this film had everything right. These reviews were printed at the time of the movie's release and are an interesting backdrop to some of these contemporary reviewers who have set up websites for themselves.