God's Little Acre

Anthony Mann: God's Little Acre (US 1958) with Robert Ryan (Ty Ty Walden) and Buddy Hackett (Pluto Swint, later during the film elected sheriff). Photo: La Cinémathèque française.

Le Petit Arpent du bon Dieu / Luojan oma maatilkku / Guds lilla land.

Anthony Mann

États-Unis / 1957 / 110 min / 35 mm [announced] / VOSTF

D'après le roman Le Petit Arpent du bon Dieu d'Erskine Caldwell.

Avec Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Fay Spain.

Helsinki premiere: 31 Oct 1958 - Savoy - United Artists.

Rétrospective Anthony Mann

Viewed at La Cinémathèque française, Salle Georges Franju, 51 Rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris, M° Bercy Lignes, 14, 6, dimanche 14 avril 2024.

La Cinémathèque française : " Dans la moiteur du Sud, une histoire d'or caché dans le jardin d'un pauvre planteur de coton. Robert Ryan et Aldo Ray (héros de Cote 465) dans une adaptation bigarrée du livre de Caldwell, qui mêle le drame familial à la farce paysanne, d'un érotisme outrancier et audacieux. "

AA: Anthony Mann directed two films for his own production company Security Pictures: Men in War and God's Little Acre, both starring Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray.

Both films strive for earthy naturalism in contrast to Hollywood glamour. In Men in War, Mann succeeded. In God's Little Acre, he failed.

There seemed to be a curse around Erskine Caldwell in Hollywood. John Ford created masterpieces of working people in The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home and How Green Was My Valley but failed in Tobacco Road (although the cinematography of Arthur C. Miller was magisterial).

I believe that the trouble was about sex. This was the era of the Production Code Administration (PCA, 1934-1968). Before the MPAA rating system was introduced in 1968, an American film as a rule had no rating, that is: everything had to be suitable for children. A frank, naturalistic account of sex was impossible in mainstream Hollywood. Instead there was circumlocution, euphemism, symbolism, or baroque excess. 

In God's Little Acre, Anthony Mann experimented with open sexuality as daringly as he could and showed naked skin (cheesecake and beefcake) as much as the PCA allowed. Fay Spain and Tina Louise  are unique love goddesses in Anthony Mann's world, and together with Aldo Ray they emit an authentic pheromone charge and a high sex appeal, but Hollywood restrictions make the performances seem repressed and contrived. Although the actors are formidable, the beating around the bush feels embarrassing. 

For once Mann loses his assured approach. Even the exciting and original score by Elmer Bernstein feels out of touch in such circumstances.

After John Ford's 1940's films, it became rare in Hollywood to make films about fighting workers. From this angle, God's Little Acre is also exceptional. The workers break into a closed cotton mill with the intention of taking the production into their own hands, but a guard shoots and kills their leader Will Thompson (Aldo Ray).

There is a restoration of God's Little Acre at the UCLA Film and Television Archive supervised by Robert Gitt, but that was not on display. 35 mm was announced. The screening started as what looked like a battered 16 mm print. The visual quality improved, and turned into what looked like a decent 16 mm print.