Best-selling author Erskine Caldwell’s burgoo of Southern White Trash, sex, no ‘count morals, sex, perversion, greed, incest and did I forget sex (?), now comes across as something of a toxic mix. TOBACCO ROAD, the longest B’way run of the ‘30s (eight years) and this book, one of the biggest of bestsellers, barely remembered beyond their titles. As a film, TOBACCO just about the least revived of major John Ford films; ACRE a blip in Anthony Mann’s run of classic ‘50s Westerns. A big cast (Robert Ryan, flustered & loud; Aldo Ray, beefy & hirsute; Tina Louise, delectably debuting; plus Jack Lord, Vic Morrow, Rex Ingram, Buddy Hackett, Michael Landon) is around to dig huge pits around the family manse, searching for rumored buried gold when they should be planting cotton and watching over their sharecroppers’ acreage. Instead, everyone salivating over all those bosomy gals who just can’t decide which fella they should settle on. Tiresome doings, and nothing to fix in the kitchen for meals but grits with a little bacon drippings. All in all, dinner sounds more appetizing than anything else on display.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan in BABY DOLL/’56 cover the milieu in hilarious, steamy style. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/baby-doll-1956.html
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