John Ford directed this adaptation of a hit play about a family of dirt poor toothless Southern farmers. Charley Grapewin is great and carries the film on his shoulders. Elizabeth Patterson gives an enjoyable (and sometimes sensitive) turn as his wife. William Tracy plays a savage character who grates on the nerves but he does a good job at it. Ward Bond is funny as a neighbor married to one of their daughters. He has the movie's most crowd-pleasing scene when he puts Tracy in his place. Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney have small roles. I think Tierney spoke less than twenty words the whole film.

Any comparison between this film and Ford's classic from the year before, Grapes of Wrath, is absurd. Beyond the very superficial similarities, they are nothing alike. This doesn't have the gravitas or artistry of that film. The closest it comes is the scene when Grapewin and Patterson talk about two of their children who left home and never returned. The rest is a grotesque comedy about people that are almost cartoon characters more than humans.

Obviously not for the easily offended among us. This film peddles in just about every Southern stereotype you can think of. Having grown up in the South with relatives not too far removed from the types of characters displayed in this, I'm not really bothered by it. Stereotypes generally have some basis in truth, no matter how much we don't want to admit it. Amusing at times, moving once or twice, but not the masterpiece it wants to be. See it for Grapewin's energetic performance if nothing else.

After a bank purchases the land, a family of hillbillies faces eviction if it can't come up with the rent. Based on a Caldwell novel that in turn became a stage play, this is very broad comedy that rarely rises above the level of The Three Stooges. Grapewin plays a lazy farmer who has so many children that he and his wife can't keep track of them. Tracy is horribly over-the-top as one of the grown children living at home. Tierney is third billed as Tracy's useless sister but barely has a line of dialog. Rambeau does OK as a neighbor. Andrews plays the only character who has some dignity. Every once in a while Ford came up with a real clunker, and this is one of them.

Really wanted to like 'Tobacco Road' so much more. The novel was a sensation at the time as was the Broadway play adaptation. John Ford was a fine director with many very good and more films in a variety of genres, not just Westerns (of which he is still widely regarded as one of the finest directors that specialised in the genre). He was my main reason for seeing the film, despite it not being one of his best received films. The cast also promised a lot.

'Tobacco Road' was one of those films for me that promised more than it delivered. It is not one of Ford's finest hours and much of the cast have done better work in other films. Adapting from stage to film has a good deal of traps and 'Tobacco Road' sadly falls into most of them. Is it a terrible film? Absolutely not. Did it disappoint? Yes it did sadly. As it was directed by Ford and had Charley Grapewin, Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney and Elizabeth Patterson in it, 'Tobacco Road' should have been much better than it was.

It has good things. The best thing about it is Grapewin, who has experience in his role from playing him on stage and it proved to be a good move as he is terrific here and gives the film the flashes of nuance it doesn't have enough of elsewhere. Patterson has a lovely dignified presence and Andrews makes much of little.

Some of the black and white photography is striking and pleasing to look at. There are moments of poignancy and at times the comedy is amusing, Grapewin being the most successful of the cast by far to balance comedy and drama without any signs of over-compensating.

Unfortunately, Tierney is completely wasted and really struggles to do much with the very little she was given (which was hardly anything). Actually found her very out of place. William Tracy overacts badly and is very annoying as a result. Few of the characters come over as real people and more like fairly crude stereotypes that are difficult to get behind or like. Ford's direction is not incompetent but by Ford standards his work comes over as rather pedestrian and like he was not really that inspired by the material. While the photography is fine the settings look very phony and cheap.

Also felt that the script struggled with the balance of comedy and drama. The drama comes over a little better as there were poignant moments, as well as some sentimental ones. The drama however is over-shadowed in number and execution by the comedy and the odd amusing moment aside the humour is mostly not very funny and is pretty corny. The story lacks energy and the action is not opened up enough, giving it a stage bound feel.

Bottom line, not terrible but lacklustre. 4/10