God's Little Acre (film)

God's Little Acre
Directed by	Anthony Mann
Produced by	Sidney Harmon
Screenplay by	Philip Yordan Ben Maddow (uncredited)
Based on	the novel by Erskine Caldwell
Starring	Robert Ryan Aldo Ray Buddy Hackett Jack Lord Fay Spain Vic Morrow Tina Louise
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography	Ernest Haller A.S.C.
Edited by	Richard C. Meyer
Production company	Security Pictures, Inc. An Anthony Mann Production
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	August 13, 1958 (1958-08-13)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

God's Little Acre is a 1958 American film of Erskine Caldwell's 1933 novel of the same name. It was directed by Anthony Mann and shot in black and white by cinematographer Ernest Haller. Although the film was not released until August 1958, its production schedule is indicated as September 11 to late October 1957.

The film was as controversial as the novel, although unlike its source material there was no prosecution for obscenity. Though both book and film were laced throughout with racy innuendo calling into question the issue of marital fidelity, it was the film adaptation that may have been the more alarming, inasmuch as it portrayed a popular uprising, or workers' insurrection, in the southern United States by laid-off millworkers trying to gain control of the factory equipment on which their jobs depended.

Philip Yordan was officially given credit for the screenplay, but it was actually by Ben Maddow. Since Maddow was blacklisted for his radical, and suspected, but unproven, Communist activities during the 1950s Red Scare, working without credit was the only way he could successfully submit screenplays. When it was first released, audiences under eighteen years of age were prohibited from viewing what were perceived to be numerous sexy scenes throughout, though in recent decades the film's scandalous reputation has diminished. After decades of neglect, the film was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive under the supervision of master restorer Robert Gitt. As part of Gitt's restoration, Yordan's name was replaced by Maddow's in the main title roll.

Widower Ty Ty Walden (Robert Ryan) and his two daughters live in the backwoods of Georgia during the Great Depression (although the film appears to be set in the 1950s, since many of the cars are 1950s vintage). While Ty Ty searches for gold on his farm, his son-in-law Will (Aldo Ray) cheats on his wife Rosamund (Helen Westcott) with Griselda (Tina Louise). Ty Ty has been digging for gold on his land for 15 years. Pluto Swint (Buddy Hackett) arrives to announce he's running for sheriff. Swint is invited to come around back where Darlin' Jill (Fay Spain) is taking a bath in an outdoor bathtub positioned near a handpump and spigot. She asks him to pump some more water (the camera never dips lower than the top of the tub). He is asked to keep his eyes closed, but takes a pleasurable peek.