Erskine Caldwell's two most popular books ("Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre") were both made into controversial films, though John Ford's 1941 adaptation of "Tobacco Road" made it to the screen with memorably eccentric characters, smoothly segueing from absurdity to pathos. Anthony Mann's work on "God's Little Acre" is appropriately uneven (which is Caldwell's tone, after all), however the switch from ridiculousness to high drama is fitful here and doesn't come off. The performers shouldn't be faulted: 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, and Tina Louise is torrid as his daughter-in-law who is not-so-secretly in love with Aldo Ray, an unemployed factory worker. 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 ****
Review of God's Little Acre
