The sleepy town of Pitchfork, Arkansas becomes famous when hillbilly Slim Summerville (as Juniper "Pa" Jenkins) celebrates his prolific pig's latest litter. Not only does she have a personality (which we never really see), "Esmeralda" is blessed with eighteen piglets. As many Arkansas residents don't know many numbers more 'an ten, Mr. Summerville calls it "a heap a' pigs all in one lump." This stupid story is partially redeemed by the presence of some legendary country names in the extended cast, moat notably sunshine girl Mary Ford and musician Merle Travis. Best of all are the songs by country and western recording star Jimmy Wakely. Also featured are vocal group The Pied Pipers, yodeling blonde Carolina Cotton, and The Milo Twins. The soundtrack is far superior to the story.*** I'm from Arkansas (10/31/44) Lew Landers ~ Slim Summerville, Jimmy Wakely, Iris Adrian, Bruce Bennett
... View MoreThis film is not quite a classic, but it did have one delightful surprise for me.Iris Colleen Summers, aka Mary Ford, Les Paul's singing partner, is about 20 years old in this film and sings in three songs as one of the Sunshine Girls trio for Jimmy Wakely's band. She has a brief solo in the first song. It was her only film appearance before working with Les Paul.Les Paul and Mary Ford had numerous top ten hits in the early 1950s, including "How High the Moon" and "Tiger Rag".Otherwise, this film includes a couple examples of Cliff Nazarro's famous doubletalk and two delightful yodeling songs from Carolina Cotton.I'd say the music takes a front seat to the comedy here.
... View MorePeople flock to a small Arkansas town after a prize pig delivers another huge litter of young. Much music and some humor results.Think Petticoat Junction and Green Acres or Hee Haw and then go even more rural and backward. This is a real hillbilly comedy where all of the people in the town look like your stereotypical hillbillies with the hats and the beards. Its a Snuffy Smith cartoon brought to life, only more so (Actually Snuffy had two live action films made about him). Amusing to a point, the problem for me was that the film is almost a steady stream of country music. Don't get me wrong I like country music, but there is so much of it here that there really isn't a plot so much as spoken passages to get you to the next musical number. The result is everyone is a cliché of one sort or another, simply because its the easiest way of telling who anyone is. The jokes which are one liners or arise out of the clichés are okay, but very few of them are laugh out loud funny since many are also forms of ones we've heard before.Can you tell I'm not a fan? Your tolerance for low brow countrified jokes and "constant" country music performances will determine your mileage.
... View MoreWhile this is a somewhat entertaining movie, I have to wonder how people from Arkansas truly felt when they saw this movie (I highly doubt that this movie played in Arkansas anywhere). Playing the residents there as slow, stupid hillbillies is not exactly the way to promote the state, and would NEVER be made today. The story here is quite simple, several groups go down to Pitchfork, Arkansas to exploit the town's notoriety when the town pig has a litter of 14 piglets. Along the way, hillbilly music happens. Lots and lots of it. I love the yodelers. The rest I can take or leave. Not a bad movie, it's just terribly stereotypical.
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