Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Payno I 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.

ksimkutch Oddly 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.

mark.waltz Yodelers, hog callers, barn dances and corny jokes are all part of this outrageously bad Z musical where a hog in Pitchfork Arkansas with 18 babies causes a ruckus in the news (even making it into the New York papers) and becomes a huge celebrity. Rumored to become the new star of a Broadway musical revue, this great-grandmother of Miss Piggy forces a New York radio show to visit Pitchfork (is that anywhere near Bug Tussle?) and that great big corn field down south. Pitchfork, Arizona is a backwoods town so filled with hokum that you expect the corn fields to pop up with the cast of "Hee Haw" telling bad jokes or references to the Hogg sisters-Ima and Ura.Slim Summerville, the basset faced comic, headlines the cast with his good extremely old fashioned wisdom, marrying feisty Maude Eburne as part of a bet in the hog calling contest. When one of the hicks (El Brendel) has a strong Swedish accent, don't give into your temptation to throw bricks at the screen. Veteran wisecracker Iris Adrian gets top female billing, getting a romantic part for a change with one of the more realistic locals ("Mildred Pierce's" Bruce Bennett).A subplot involving Eburne's attempt to sell her property goes nowhere but leads into a lengthy barn set radio show featuring Jimmy Wakely and the Pied Pipers. If only the real pied piper had come along and carried this script away before they were able to film it. This one makes you wonder if somebody was high on the hog when they wrote it...what were they smokin'?

wes-connors The sleepy town of Pitchfork, Arkansas becomes famous when hillbilly Slim Summerville (as Juniper "Pa" Jenkins) celebrates his prolific pig's latest litter. Not only does she have a personality (which we never really see), "Esmeralda" is blessed with eighteen piglets. As many Arkansas residents don't know many numbers more 'an ten, Mr. Summerville calls it "a heap a' pigs all in one lump." This stupid story is partially redeemed by the presence of some legendary country names in the extended cast, moat notably sunshine girl Mary Ford and musician Merle Travis. Best of all are the songs by country and western recording star Jimmy Wakely. Also featured are vocal group The Pied Pipers, yodeling blonde Carolina Cotton, and The Milo Twins. The soundtrack is far superior to the story.*** I'm from Arkansas (10/31/44) Lew Landers ~ Slim Summerville, Jimmy Wakely, Iris Adrian, Bruce Bennett

Spuzzlightyear While this is a somewhat entertaining movie, I have to wonder how people from Arkansas truly felt when they saw this movie (I highly doubt that this movie played in Arkansas anywhere). Playing the residents there as slow, stupid hillbillies is not exactly the way to promote the state, and would NEVER be made today. The story here is quite simple, several groups go down to Pitchfork, Arkansas to exploit the town's notoriety when the town pig has a litter of 14 piglets. Along the way, hillbilly music happens. Lots and lots of it. I love the yodelers. The rest I can take or leave. Not a bad movie, it's just terribly stereotypical.