No.284 : Wild River (1960)

Wild River at the IMDb

Set in 1931, the film opens with some back and white archive footage of the terrible damage and loss of life suffered when the Tennessee river bursts its banks. This sets the scene for the drama which follows which sees Montgomery Clift’s Tennessee Valley Authority trouble shooter's attempt to clear a valley before the dam causes the area to be underwater. As normally happens in such situations everyone has sold up and moved on apart from one settlement.

This is run by a fearsome octogenarian who along with her simpleton son and granddaughter, Lee Remick, runs a slick operation that sees all the tenant farmers do all the work. This is the deep south remember so don’t tread here if you can’t take some pretty on the nose racial abuse. Grandma isn’t keen to move so Clift tries to undermine her by paying all her workers an eye watering $5 a day to help clear the land ahead of the flooding.

Huge mistake! The locals don’t like the black workers receiving the same pay and the local chamber of commerce worry that this fat pay day will ruin the local economy, which relies on the virtual slave labour of the black community.

Not being too worried about all the bother he’s causing Clift soon gets friendly with the widow Remick and lives up to his character’s name ‘Chuck’, as he chucks it up her with indent haste - this is the 1930’s remember.

Things come to a head as the US Marshalls are sent in for an eviction and the Good Ole Boys lay siege to Clift’s love nest. Will the old lady leave? Will the valley be flooded and will race relations be settled once and for all?

Directed by Elia Kazan (’Streetcar’, ’Waterfront’) this was a superior offering and, although it did dip in the middle a bit, it was engaging and tense.

Clift was good in the lead and I liked that he wasn’t a butch hero as he got his clock cleaned every time he squared up to the local bullies. He was clearly a lover more than a fighter as he was invited to stay overnight in Remick’s shack the first day he got her off the island. The cantankerous old granny was good fun with her nastiness clearly been brought about by fear of change.

The film was a bit dated in it’s depiction of black workers with many simpering to Clift with questions about where electricity comes from "do you wring it out the water?" one asks. To be fair Clift’s character is a progressive offering trips to the dam and fair pay to one and all. This approach is a bit naive and he does concede at one point that he forgot he was in the south.

Remick is a bit simpering in the female lead and too keen to fall into Clift’s arms and desert old grandma. The showdown at the end was good although they didn’t hold true with the premise of Chekhov’s gun - a big shooter was found and fondled after an hour, but never seen again!

This was an interesting production that will serve as a historical document detailing the real life efforts to bring safety and electricity to a bunch of yokels who were fine as they are thanks very much, and to a film made 30 years after the event which would be radically different if made today.

Best Bit : Here‘s $4 get the best bottle of wine you can find.  17/23