SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

punishmentpark '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.

edwagreen So much of this 1941 film reminds me of The Beverly Hillbillies and other movies dealing with rural impoverished America.Most of the film is absolutely inane with Jeeter Lester (Charley Grapewin in a good performance) running around trying to sell wood, so as to make the payment for his place."Tobacco Road" depicts rural America at its most impoverished level, and therefore the film should have been much more serious in tone. Nevertheless, the last 10 minutes or so becomes poignant when it appears that Jeeter and wife Elizabeth Patterson will land up in the poor house. Due to the kindness of friend Dana Andrews, they get a six month stay to come up with a bumper crop. After all is said and done, Jeeter resorts to laziness and you come away with the impression that nothing positive shall get done. Is this really Americana?Gene Tierney is in the movie as daughter Ellie Mae. Ellie Mae! Wasn't that the daughter's name in Beverly Hillbillies?

LeaBlacks_Balls A family of backwood idiots in South Carolina are evicted from their property by the bank, and do very little to help themselves. Soon the moronic son is married to the local religious zealot and they buy a car and drive around reeking havoc, crashing into almost everything and abusing the car like it's a toy. The patriarch of the family wants to get a loan from the bank so he can plant some crops again, but he's too lazy and shiftless to actually do anything. There's a bunch of weird slapstick and overacting that could put post-Scarface Pacino to shame, mixed with awful maudlin scenes of desperation.This kind of film is typical of that era in American history, where rich, 'enlightened' people gathered to laugh at those less fortunate, be it blacks, Latinos or hicks, in movies filled with stereotypes and cruelty. It's a dated dud that is better off forgotten.

eminges 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.