Ron (If Footmen Tire You What Will Horses Do?) Ormond directed this corny country fried musical starring just about every Country and Western guest star from Hee Haw that you’d ever want to see. In fact, Hee Haw’s Minnie Pearl also appears in a supporting role!
The nominal plot involves an election being held in a small hick town. Some radio bigwig thinks that's the perfect time to hold a big country music jamboree, so he plans to put on the concert and the election all in the same spot. The two candidates are patriarchs of families that have a longstanding backwoods feud, and the election (not to mention the concert) is certain to bring tensions between the two clans to a head.
There were about a hundred different ways this could’ve gone wrong, but Forty Acre Feud remains watchable just for the music, which contains more hits than misses as many of the artists sing some of their best-known stuff. Even if you’re not a fan of old timey country music, you still may enjoy such acts as Bill Anderson (“Three A.M.”), Skeeter Davis (“The End of the World”), Ferlin Husky (who also appears as the slow-witted town shopkeeper), The Willis Brothers (“Six Foot Two by Four”), George Jones (“Things Have Gone to Pieces”), Ray Price (“The Other Woman”), and Loretta Lynn (“Blue Kentucky Girl”).
Back in the day, poor folks in the south weren’t able to afford to see big country acts in concert. However, for a quarter or two, they could see something like this or Hootenanny Hoot and watch a dozen or so bands with only the barest wisp of a plot to get in the way. It’s not exactly great or anything, but it remains a harmless little time capsule.
Speaking as an Ormond connoisseur, Forty Acre Feud is an agreeable middle tier entry in his filmography. It might not have the same kick as The Monster and the Stripper or the WTF goodness of his later religious pictures, but it’s decent enough. In fact, it feels kind of like a country music offshoot of his early burlesque movie, Varieties on Parade as it’s essentially a series of filmed performances. The fact that he started his career making many low budget westerns also meant he probably knew a thing or two about country and western music too.
Husky later starred in the immortal Hillbillys in a Haunted House.
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