God's Little Acre (1958)

Robert Ryan: Ty Ty Walden

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ty Ty Walden : [In response to his son wanting a raincoat]  Son, if it starts to rain, you just peel off your clothes and let your skin take care of the rest. God never made a finer raincoat than a man's skin, anyhow.

• Ty Ty Walden : [in son Jim Leslie's home]  That's a dining room - way down there?

• Ty Ty Walden : [Expressing his contempt for alcohol]  It's all the devil's brew. Cleanest drinking water right in our own back yard. I owe my health and long life to just plain well water.

• Ty Ty Walden : God, give me the strength - to spread out my arms to the ends of my fields. Let me fill up the holes, make the land smooth. You spared my sons, and I'll never dig another hole again. Except to... to plant seeds for things to grow.

• Ty Ty Walden : A what?

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : A albino.

  Ty Ty Walden : What in the pluperfect hell is that, Pluto?

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : Why its one of these all white men. Looks like they made out of chalk. White as cotton. Got white hair. White skin. White eyeballs, even.

• Ty Ty Walden : Well, dog my cat.

• Ty Ty Walden : You boys don't seem to catch on. Its not important that I get money out of God's little acre. The fact that I can walk on it, stand on it, feel God is there.

  Buck Walden : What's all this got to do with me and Griselda?

  Ty Ty Walden : All you boys seem to think about are the things you can see and touch. Well, that ain't livin'. It's the things you feel down inside ya. That's what livin's fer. If you felt more on how Griselda feels inside her, no other man could touch her.

• Buck Walden : What you got for dinner, honey?

  Griselda Walden, Ty Ty's Daughter-in-Law : Same as yesterday, Buck. Bacon fat and grits.

  Buck Walden : I'd like me some fried chicken.

  Ty Ty Walden : When a man has a wife like Griselda, I don't know how he can keep his mind on food all the time.

  Griselda Walden, Ty Ty's Daughter-in-Law : [laughs]  Now, quit your teasin' Ty Ty.

  Ty Ty Walden : If the good Lord seen fit to put a beauty like you in our house, I'm gonna take my fill of lookin' while I can.

• Ty Ty Walden : I'm worried about that boy. Who's he go see in town?

  Buck Walden : Oh, he ain't particular. Anything with skirts on.

  Ty Ty Walden : He ain't used to women yet. They can do him harm. He won't know about until it's too late to stop the clock.

• Ty Ty Walden : I'm diggin' for gold!

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : Gold? In the state of Georgia?

  Ty Ty Walden : Bright, yellow gold. Gold coins as big a round as a biscuit. Thousands of 'em.

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : Is that a fact?

  Ty Ty Walden : Gold spoons. Gold plates. Gold forks. And gold thunderbugs, as you wouldn't be surprised.

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : Have you seen 'em? For a fact?

  Ty Ty Walden : Almost.

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : Where?

  Ty Ty Walden : Don't know, exactly. Ain't find any, but, they're there. They're there.

• Ty Ty Walden : My baby, Darlin' Jill. But, she's too young to go courtin'.

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : I - I don't want to court her. I - I want to marry her.

  Ty Ty Walden : You would, Pluto? You mean it?

  Pluto Swint, Sheriff Candidate : I'd cut off my right arm to marry her.

• Buck Walden : You tell him to stop tomcattin' around my wife!

  Ty Ty Walden : Grisellie in this?

  Will Thompson : I didn't say a word about her.

  Buck Walden : No, he don't say nothin', he just looks. And that's plenty.

  Ty Ty Walden : Looks don't hurt anybody, Buck.

• Ty Ty Walden : Buck, if I was you, when I went to bed tonight I'd get down on my knees in the dark and try talkin' to God a little. He can tell you things nobody else can. And maybe He'd tell you how you ought to act with Griselda. He'd tell you if you'd only take the time and trouble to listen. If there's anything in the world He's crazy about, it's seein' a man and a woman in love with each other. To forgive is part of love. When he sees that, He knows the world is runnin' along as slick as grease.

• Ty Ty Walden : Go in the house, get some supper, some good night sleep. Maybe tomorrow will be a good day.

• Uncle Felix : Mr. Ty Ty, you oughta' be out raisin' cotton. You're a good farmer - that is, you USED to be. Why, Mr. Ty Ty, you can raise more cotton on this land in one season than you can find gold in a whole lifetime. It's a waste of everything, Mr. Ty Ty, diggin' them holes all over the place.

  Ty Ty Walden : Well, now, I wish I had spent a little more time on the cotton, that's for sure. If I had 20 or 30 bales to tide me over the fall and winter, I could devote all the rest of my time to diggin'!

  Uncle Felix : But Mr. Ty Ty, where're we gonna' get enough grub to carry us through another winter?

  Ty Ty Walden : We use my credit, like we did last winter!

  Uncle Felix : The store man says you ain't got enough credit to grease the end of your nose.

  Ty Ty Walden : Felix, I'm sorry about that, but there's nothing' I can do. I just GOT to go on diggin'. I got the fever! Ya' can't stop the fever!