The Southerner
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Hugo Butler and Jean Renoir from the novel “Hold Autumn in Your Hand” by George Sessions Perry
1945/USA
Jean Renoir Productions/Loew-Hakim
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] The saving grace of the cinema is that with patience and a little love we may arrive at that wonderfully complex creature which is called man. — Jean Renoir[/box]
I’m a huge Renoir fan but for some reason this one has never captured me, despite its evident beauty. I think maybe the story is a bit too “American” for a European sophisticate like Renoir to entirely pull off.
Sam Tucker (Zachary Scott) and his wife Nona (Betty Field) work as cotton pickers. Two small children and Granny (Beulah Bondi) complete the family. Sam decides to see about renting his own piece of land from his boss to work as a sharecropper. He is full of enthusiasm about the rich earth, ignoring the dilapidated house, dry well, and other serious defects. He counts on his neighbor to help out on the water front but discovers the man (J. Carroll Naish) is a jealous skinflint who had been hoping to get the property for himself.
Things go from bad to worse. Granny complains non-stop. One of the children gets sick from malnutrition and the only cure is to give him expensive milk and vegetables. Then a flood comes. Can the Tuckers hold onto their dream?
Don’t know if it’s me or the film, but both times I watched this I had kind of zoned out by the end. Zachary Scott is very good, though. It is nice to see him play something other than a mustachioed cad. The usually reliable Beulah Bondi overdoes it.
The Southerner was nominated by the Academy in the categories of: Best Director; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HPgVVxOQSE
Clip
