Tina Louise in GOD'S LITTLE ACRE (1958) - CouldaShouldaWoulda Wednesdays

Judging from Cara Williams' nominated performance as "The Woman" in The Defiant Ones (check back on Sunday for Lulu's riff)... And from Tina Louise's non-nominated work as the uncommonly comely Griselda in God's Little Acre...

Seems that horny hillbilly-fillies 'twere all the rage in 1958.

Ty Ty: Is that watermelon cool & ripe & ready to eat?
Griselda: Sure is, Paw.
click image for source

The opening moments of this film are just enthralling -- radiant black & white cinematography, Joe Valino and The Gospelaires blasting the crazy title track, the lurid rep of the story and the film, all that and Tina Louise too ?!? -- Lulu was just giddy. Giddy, ah'tell'ya, giddy. Then. (Sigh) Then, the movie actually got started.

God's Little Acre's sorta a jalopy of a movie. Part cracker comedy of manners, part sprawling tale of domestic discord and misguided dreams -- the dang wreck barely holds together and's got no plot to move it from beginning to end. Luckily there's the considerable talents of Tina Louise.

Really, Tina Louise is about the only reason to stay interested in the movie. (Aside, o'course, from the treat of a totally cute, very young Michael Landon playing an albino boy that the Walden clan abducts from the swamp to help find GrandPappy's hidden gold. The youngest Walden gal -- Darlin' Jill -- takes a fancy to albino Dave & decides to keep him and pet him like he was her own goat, though she lets Uncle Felix -- the Walden's favored sharecropper -- keep albino Dave penned up & disciplined. But that's the subject of another post, s'pose...)

But as Griselda, Tina Louise offers a consistent, precise and interesting performance. (What's amazing is that Lulu noticed Tina's acting -- or, more precisely, her intense exuding -- independent of her glorious breasts. Tina's bosom is just astonishing. All the more so for the fact that Tina's bosom is ostensibly "all natural" talent, no surgery -- just finely engineered underwiring -- to augment it.) Though she -- along with most of the cast -- opt for the "strike a pose & emote" school of acting, Louise gives a surprisingly fine performance in this strange and tawdry little flick. From this, it seems almost plausible that she could have had a further career as a serious actress had she elected for a different gig during that fateful summer of 1964...

And this from Lulu -- who always loved "the rest" best.