People are voting emotionally.
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
View MoreOne of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
View MoreOddly enough Lew Landers director of such horrors classics as "The Raven" (1935) and "The Return of the Vampire" (1943) is at helm here bringing forth to us this low-below-low budget tired redneck stereotype filled too musical-hardly a comedy.After it makes national headlines that Esmeralda a pig gave birth to eighteen piglets multiple visitors overrun the overly southern small town of Pitchfork. Amongst them are - an all male band who grew up there, an all female band who plan on using the publicity for their own advantage, and two spies from an industrial meat factory who were sent in order to find out what "secret formula" caused that many pigs to be born.With this kind of a ridiculous plot the film takes an extremely lazy route and gives each of it's characters only one clichéd characteristic as an identifier. You have your old fools (Slim Summerville), Cynical gals (Iris Adrian), feisty elderly ladies (Maude Eburne), dashing young men (Bruce Bennett), a somewhat well known musical sensation of the time appearing as themselves (Jimmy Wakely), and it just goes on. Summerville is enjoyable especially while bantering with tenacious Eburne though to a certain extant as his mumbling southerner Walter Brennan-esque routine gets stale real quick. Adrian never got another main starring role which was lucky since her brassiness here is spread so thin it's pretty tiring after a while, Bennett's nothing special but watchable. Wakley should not have been present at all the action stops dead as soon as there's a musical number and despite them being pleasant to one's ear they're basically noting more than just filler.At seventy minutes long this tiny and hidden for a good reason picture does provide some entertainment when it doesn't mainly and heavily rely on poor attempts at screwball comedy-like humor.
View MoreI'm From Arkansas is what is is, a lowbudget "B" ("C", really) comedy-musical clearly made for rural southern audiences and likely not seen that much outside of that region. Hillbilly bed-and-board owner Maude Eburne's prized pig manages to knock out eighteen young-uns in one pregnancy that manages to become novelty news across the country (read the headlines, one is a good joke in reference to the smash comedy The Miracle of Morgan Creek, released earlier that year). A gregarious manager of a small-time singing act decides to bring the girls down to Arkansas on the presumption they can somehow get tied into the spotlight. Brassy Iris Adrian is the most cynical of the gals and when she mistakes Bruce Bennett (a major radio bandleader back in his hometown for a vacation) for a local rube, he decides to milk it and play the hick while romancing her.Slim Summerville starred or was featured in scores of rural comedies for over a decade when this film was released, his earlier ones were for the major studios and had bigger budgets. Near the end of his career (he passed away in 1946), he is top-billed but has less screen time than either Bennett (surprisingly billed fourth when he was only a few years before considered possible major star material) or the always enjoyable Ms. Adrian, in the main lead, and the only truly starring role I can recall seeing her in (her specialty was snappy costarring small parts, even bits). Maude Eburne is a delight as always as "Ma" (one surprise later plot turn is Summerville's ardent pursuit of Eburne in marriage, he's always on her property so probably the major viewers presumed they were a long-married couple). Country music great Jimmy Wakely has a few nice numbers (including the legendary hit "You are My Sunshine" made famous by another Jimmy, Jimmie Davis), 50's pop star Mary Ford is in Wakely's girl group, and country star Merle Travis can be spotted in Bennett's band. Not a great comedy by any means, but a pleasant time killer.
View MoreWacky Petticoat Junction type movie now in public domain.Townsfolk all move slow.Esmeralda the town pig just gave birth to a slew of liberals.Not sure how many cuz no one can count.We even get to see the Pathe chicken for a minute! Huh? What's that doing there? Anyway the pig gets press all over the globe.A show producer reads about it and wants some of the action.He takes the troupe to Arkansas.The plan is to find out what made the pig spawn so many liberal.Craziness ensues.It's a very watchable movie that could never be made today.
View MoreImagine a film that is like "Hee-Haw", "The Beverly Hillbillies", "Li'l Abner" and you put them together....along with yodeling!! Talk about a recipe for a migraine!! Despite being a public domain film that is free to download, watching this film is no bargain!! The film begins with some pig (the animal, I mean) having a litter of 18 piglets. Well, the nation goes nuts about this--after all, being 1944 there isn't much in the news anyway...except maybe WWII!!! In a contrived plot, a leader of a female band takes his troupe to Arkansas to cash in on the hype about the pigs. But in this one-horse town, the only fun is another band that just happens to be passing through as well! But the all-male band pretends to just be locals. Why? Because it's in the script. And when the two bands get together it's yodeling, Roy Rogers style music, ventriloquism(!) and lots of corn-ball humor. Nowdon't get me wrong--I am not against the South or Mountain folk--just terrifically one-dimensional and silly portrayals of them. And it doesn't get much more silly and one-dimensional than this, as the film manages to be at least as bad as the infamous "Swing Your Lady"--a film that made it to the "Fifty Worst Movies" book! Not good and I film I won't recommend unless you are the type who thinks Larry the Cableguy is too sophisticated!
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