Hillbilly family farm life in 1941 rural Georgia.
Shiftless Jeeter Lester (Charley Grapewin) and his family of hillbilly stereotypes live in a rural backwater where their ancestors were once wealthy planters. Their slapstick existence is threatened by a bank's plans to take over the land for more profitable farming; subplots involve the affairs and marriages of son Dude (William Tracy) and daughter Ellie May (Gene Tierney).—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>
The Lester family has farmed the land along Tobacco Road in Georgia for over a century. Once prosperous, it has now become run down in large part as current family patriarch, Jeeter Lester, does little to help himself or his family, he only feigning "work", instead preferring to "beg, borrow or steal" to put food on the table. The one saving grace is that the now deceased landowner, Captain John Harmon, has allowed them to stay on the land in perpetuity, so that they will always have a home. So when they hear that Captain Tim, Captain John's son, has returned to Tobacco Road, they are expecting, like Captain John before him, he is extending them credit to allow them at least enough to buy cotton seed. However, Captain Tim has instead come to tell them that he is in as dire financial straits as them, and that the bank has taken over the land earmarking it for scientific agriculture. Captain Tim does however convince banker George Payne to allow the Lesters to stay if they can pay an annual rent of $100 by next Sunday. With no money at all, Jeeter has to figure out how to come up with that $100 so that he and matriarch Ada will not have to go to the poor farm. One possibility is that one of their dozen or so surviving young adult children will come out of the woodwork to save them, most, with the exception of Pearl, who is in a complicated marriage with simple minded local Lov Bensey, and Dude and Ellie May, who still live at home, long ago getting as far away from Tobacco Road as possible with their current whereabouts unknown to either Jeeter or Ada. Another possibility is that the bank in Augusta will loan him the money. But the strongest possibility is that he can finagle the money out of recently widowed Sister Bessie - who seems to believe she can sing her way loudly into heaven - she too only having just returned to Tobacco Road with life insurance money in hand.—Huggo
The story of poor white folks in the South -- the lazy Jeeter Lester and his long-suffering wife -- is cleaned up a bit for the movie and stresses comedy more than rural crudeness.—Ed Stephan <[email protected]>
In Georgia, near to the Savannah River, the lazy and crook hillbilly Jeeter Lester lives in the Tobacco Road with his wife Ada, his son Dude and his single daughter Ellie May in a very poor condition. When the bank decides to take over his land, the banker George Payne is convinced by his friend Capt. Tim Harmon to lease the land to Jeeter for US$ 100.00 per year. Jeeter plots a means to loan the amount from the widow Sister Bessie Rice that has just received U$ 800.00 from the life insurance company. However, Bessie decides to get married with Dude and uses the money to buy a brand new car for Dude. Jeeter plots a means to sell her car while he tries to marry Ellie May with his son-in-law Lov Bensey that was left by his wife.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
