hyped garbage

A Masterpiece!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

'Tobacco road' is very typical and very loud. A lot of singing and screaming, and relatives playing tricks on each other, because they are... very, very poor, and not much, if at all, educated. You could look at it as a comedy (Imdb indicated so), but it's not quite that to me. Sure, the recurring loose board on the porch and such other stuff work that way, but mostly, all the other 'fun' has a layer of tragedy right underneath it.The acting is very enjoyable, with poor old struggling Jeeter Lester by Charley Grapewin as a personal favorite. But it's also terrific watching Gene Tierney as Ellie May, as the seductress poor people style; crawling through the mud, just to get a taste of a turnip. Screamin' Dude ("Now, 'dude', that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from.") Lester was something else as well; kicking and screaming the whole way through, going crazy for nothing more than a plain car horn. Yes, this film is fun, but tragedy lurks everywhere, even if it's all lined with plenty of comedic and sentimental elements.It's not for everyone, and I don't particularly want to watch it over and over, but it's still a pretty good, enjoyable film. A good 7 out of 10.

Tobacco Road as was written by Erskine Caldwell and dramatized on Broadway for 8 years was brought to the screen by 20th Century Fox in a considerably altered state. It was thought of probably by Darryl Zanuck as a great property for John Ford seeing what he did with The Grapes Of Wrath.The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a great piece of social commentary, an immortal work whether in print or on the big or small screen. Ford kept the spirit of Steinbeck's work completely intact and got a well deserved Best Director Oscar. In this one because Caldwell's Jeeters are not quite as noble as the Joads of The Grapes Of Wrath, they're not prototype rural proletarians. The changes took a lot of the drama and commentary and left the film not too far above the Weaver Family films and Ma and Pa Kettle.Charley Grapewin and Bessie Patterson are Mr.&Mrs. Jeeter Lester and Jeeter is a guy determined to get by doing as little as possible. The whole family has his spirit. He's married most of his children off. One of the daughters in serious trouble of being an old maid at 23 and that was Gene Tierney if you can believe that. Her character in the book and play has a cleft palate and you can understand why she's not married off. Here she's just gorgeous Gene Tierney and a crucial element is missing.There's another daughter Pearl whom we never see, but who's married to the loutish Ward Bond. She keeps running off and Bond just doesn't get it. Here he's just rustic lout, I suspect that the 13 year old Pearl figures she can do a whole lot better. That one I'm sure the Code was breathing hot and heavy over 20th Century Fox.There's another physically deformed character and that's Marjorie Rambeau who has in the book a nose like a pig's snout. Grapewin palms off his 16 year old son as a new husband for Rambeau to get his hands on the insurance money her old husband left her. William Tracy as the kid who's no prize figures she's experienced and eager even if she's a psalm singer which she is.The rough house comedy that typifies many a Ford film is funny, but hardly in the spirit of what Caldwell was writing. In the end I have to say that the film is not good John Ford, though he's done worse.

By sheer chance, I happened to get hold of copies of three difficult-to- find DVD's within about a month of each other: Tobacco Road, Tortilla Flat, and Song of the South (this is the 21st century, kids, EVERYTHING is available if you look hard enough).What a nasty insight into the mindset of America in the 1940's: let's all us respectable white folk rush to buy tickets to see darkies, white trash, and wetbacks demean themselves. Here's a quick test to see if you want to hunt this particular vile artifact of our politically incorrect past down: do you think Gene Tierney rolling around in the dirt trying (unsuccessfully) to get a genetic defective to come over and give her a little pleasurin' is A) side-splittingly hilarious B) stomach-wrenching? If your sides aren't already aching with laughter, pass.

In Georgia, near to the Savannah River, the lazy and crook hillbilly Jeeter Lester (Charley Grapewin) lives in the Tobacco Road with his wife Ada (Elizabeth Patterson), his son Dude (William Tracy) and his single daughter Ellie May (Gene Tierney) in a very poor condition. When the bank decides to take over his land, the banker George Payne (Grant Mitchell) is convinced by his friend Capt. Tim Harmon (Dana Andrews) to lease the land to Jeeter for US$ 100.00 per year. Jeeter plots a means to loan the amount from the widow Sister Bessie Rice (Marjorie Rambeau) that has just received U$ 800.00 from the life insurance company. However, Bessie decides to get married with Dude and uses the money to buy a brand new car for Dude. Jeeter plots a means to sell her car while he tries to marry Ellie May with his son-in-law Lov Bensey (Ward Bond) that was left by his wife."Tobacco Road" is absolutely overrated with a boring story that is not funny and annoying characters. Dude honking the horn of the car is irritating; Jeeter is a small time crook and thief that steals his own family and it is impossible to feel any empathy or sympathy for such hillbilly. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Caminhos Ásperos" ("Rough Ways")