One of the most relentlessly comedic films is John Ford's 1941 tragedy Tobacco Road. The story of a family of rigorously stupid hillbillies heavily piles absurdist jokes on top of a plainly grim reality. There's a kind of cynicism to how relentlessly it portrays the foolishness and moral decrepitude of its characters. Sometimes it's really funny and there's some surprisingly great stuntwork. But there's ultimately a kind of hollowness to the film I found unsatisfying.
Lester (Charley Grapewin) is the patriarch of a hillbilly family living in a shack so badly constructed it seems composed of angles from a German Expressionist film.
He's really the star but mostly Gene Tierney is centrally promoted, though her role is very small. She plays his beautiful daughter, Ellie May, whom he tries to marry off to Ward Bond's character. Bond's married to another of Lester's daughters, an unseen character named Pearl, but she's run off so no-one sees any problem with Bond marrying again.
Every scene sets up a problem and ends by surprising you by how stupidly Lester handles it. He needs a hundred dollars to pay rent on his land, as he's informed by a man from the bank. So he goes to the bank for a loan and laughs at his own foolishness when he finds the same man waiting for him there.
Lester couldn't be bothered to plough his land for seven years but prays to God, telling the All Mighty that if he doesn't receive help, he'll have to take matters into his own hands.
The end of the movie makes it clear there is no hope for these people often portrayed as comically selfish. Amid the mouldering ruins of a once powerful southern aristocracy, there may be some subliminal attempt to garner sympathy for these folks. If so, it's really subtle. Gene Tierney looks sensational in the movie, though.
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