Watching this film again after many years, I must say that it is a solid piece of work from writer-producer-director Ron Ormond. It is perfectly pitched at the Southern drive-in audience of the mid-60s and features lots of action, a crime-related plot, lots of religious homilies from Tex Ritter playing a preacher, lots of superb downhome music, and nice Tennessee atmosphere (shot at the Starday Records Movie Ranch!). This was one of Ritter's last films, and thankfully he is not just a guest star as he was in Forty Acre Feud, but the true star of the film along with Earl Snake Richards. Ritter could read the phone book and make it sound profound, so it's great to see him delivering sermons to his flock and life lessons to his family so convincingly in this film. Star Earl "Snake" Richards (who was also star of Ormond's WHITE LIGHTNIN ROAD, which is worth seeing too) is better known to rock'n'roll fans as Earl Sinks, the man who replaced Buddy Holly in the Crickets and who sang on the original version of "I Fought The Law." He also made a lot of records under different names in the 60s, but by the mid-60s had solidified a career as Earl Richards and made many country singles, well into the 70s. He has also been a successful songwriter and music publisher, with a career still going today. Interestingly, in this film, when Tex Ritter's older daughter, the "girl from tobacco row" of the title, puts the move of Snake's character, he goes instead for the younger (and more conservative) daughter Rita, played by Rita Faye (who also had a successful country music career before this as "Little" Rita Faye and who played on some of Patsy Cline's records), and if I'm not mistaken, Richards-Sinks and Rita Faye were married in real life. The soundtrack music is wonderful, real downhome country with fiddles, autoharps, and banjos, and the on-screen musical performances include such traditional performers as Martha Carson and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. In addition, Johnny Russell both acts (as the sheriff and boyfriend of the older daughter mentioned above) and sings a song, AND plays fiddle, both on his own song and accompanying Richards. Russell, who passed away a few years ago, wrote "Act Naturally" and many other hit songs, as well as gaining country music immortality by recording the classic "Red Necks, White Sox, and Blue Ribbon Beer" in the early 70s, a song that will always be a symbol of that era. While GIRL FROM TOBACCO ROW is a low-budget film and will no doubt look amateurish to people who want slick, assembly-line Hollywood product, it may well be Ron Ormond's best-made film of the 1960s, and AS A FILM it's well above most of the other drive-in country-music films of the 1960s in that this is actually a solid drama on its own and the music is secondary. And it should be a must-see for Tex Ritter's fans. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds the above description appealing. Bravo to Ron Ormond for getting everything right with this one.
