Tobacco Street
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Tobacco Street |
| Original title | Tobacco Road |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1941 |
| length | 84 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Ford |
| script | Nunnally Johnson |
| production |
Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox |
| music | David Buttolph |
| camera | Arthur C. Miller |
| cut | Barbara McLean |
| occupation | |
| |
Tobacco Street is an American tragic comedy by John Ford from 1941. The film is based on the novel Tobacco Street by Erskine Caldwell , but the plot has been clearly rewritten.
action
America's southern states in the 1930s: The Lester family from backwoods lives in poor conditions in a remote part of Georgia . “Tobacco Road”, the Lester family's plantation, was once large and productive. After the American Civil War , however, it found itself increasingly in dire straits and now there is not even any money left to buy seeds. The head of the family is the lazy Jeeter, who always forges big plans, but never realizes them. Other members of the family include his hard-working wife Ada, Jeeter's unmarried daughter Ellie May (who at the age of 23 is already considered an old maid in her circles) and Jeeter's crazy son Dude, who has a passion for cars. There is also a grandmother who is neglected by her family; in addition, numerous absent children of Jeeter and Ada are mentioned. The family's poverty can be seen, among other things, in fights over some turnips.
Jeeter learns from his neighbor Henry that Captain Harmon, for whose father Jeeter always ran the farm, is returning to Tobacco Road. Jeeter hopes that Captain Harmon will give him a new loan and that he can now rebuild his farm. To clear his conscience about the stolen turnips, he visits Sister Bessie Rice, a local revival preacher with a passion for singing. Jeester's good mood is quickly dampened when Captain Harmon and the banker Mr. Payne appear on Tobacco Road: Harmon is insolvent and so the bank had to take over Tobacco Road. Jeeter is only allowed to stay on Tobacco Road with his family if he pays $ 100 rent to the bank.
The recently widowed sister Rice hears an inner voice that she should marry Jeeter's son Dude. Dude, too, feels drawn to her, even though the sister is twice his age. When Jeeter hears about the legacy of the sister's deceased husband, he agrees to the connection. However, for all inheritance, Sister Rice will buy a new car for Dude. Jeeter steals the car from the newlyweds, but is picked up by the police chief and the car is returned to Sister Bessie and Dude. Now it looks like Jeeter and Ada have to trade their beloved Tobacco Road for a poor house. Despite being in financial distress himself, Captain Henson ultimately pays Jeeter's farm rent to the bank for the next six months. He also gives Jeeter ten dollars for the seed. But Jeeter seems to have completely different plans with the money.
background
In August 1940, Darryl F. Zanuck and the Twentieth Century Fox film studio acquired the film rights to the novel Tobacco Street by Erskine Caldwell , which was also performed very successfully as a play. The director was film veteran John Ford , who had just directed the award-winning literary film The Fruits of Wrath . Much like Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Fruits of Anger , based on a novel by John Steinbeck , addressed the precarious situation of an American family during the Great Depression . Actually, John Ford and screenwriter Nunnally Johnson wanted to make the film much more serious in the sense of Caldwell's strongly socially critical model. However, the film studio made sure that the comic aspects of the literary original appeared in the film. John Ford told the press about Tobacco Street :
“We don't have any dirt in the film. We've removed the terrible details and what we have now is a nice dramatic story. It moves you to tears, but it also has funny aspects. What we intend is that our viewers sympathize with our characters and not feel disgusted. "
The cast of the film was difficult. The first choice for the main role of Jeeter had originally been Charles Laughton before character actor Charley Grapewin , who was over 70 years old , was hired . Grapewin had already played Grandfather Joad in the previous year in The Fruits of Wrath directed by Ford, but was actually only seen mainly in supporting roles. Ford personally insisted on Grapewin, who had already played the role at the theater, against the concerns of the film studio. William Tracy had to go on a diet and lose teeth to appear as Jeeter's son Dude. Initially, the plan was to shoot the film in Virginia - but Tobacco Street was unpopular in the southern states because of its social criticism, so Tobacco Street had to be made in Hollywood.
criticism
By 1973, the film grossed around $ 1.9 million at the box office, making it a financial success. Since its publication, it has mostly received mixed views from critics. The lexicon of international film praised the “good camera work” and the film's commitment to social hardship in the southern states, but overall it was “one of the weaker works of the director”. The Lexicon of International Films also criticized the "overly schematic characters" and the "applied humor". Leonard Maltin gave the film two and a half stars out of four and called it an "entertaining but strange tragic comedy" and especially praised leading actor Charley Grapewin.
Web links
- Tobacco Road in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ TCM Notes
- ↑ TCM Notes on the film
- ↑ Tobacco Street. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Leonard Maltin's criticism of TCM