Themes: Love Triangles, Miscarriage of Justice, Escape From Prison
Main Cast: Walter Brennan, Walter Huston, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Virginia Gilmore
Release Year: 1941
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Noted French director Jean Renoir made his American debut with this 1941 film. Walter Brennan plays Tom Keefer, a man who is falsely convicted of a murder and sentenced to death by hanging. He has escaped from prison and is hiding out in Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp. Keefer is dedicated to finding the real killer and clearing his name. A trapper, Ben Ragan (Dana Andrews), is out searching for his dog when he finds Keefer hiding in the swamp. Ben believes the man's tale of being falsely railroaded. The two men trap animals, and Ben sells the furs, while his father (Walter Huston) eats the meat. Keefer tells Ben to give his share of the money from their pelt sales to his daughter, Julie (Anne Baxter). Ben eventually falls in love with Julie, arousing the wrath of Ben's girlfriend Mabel (Virginia McKenzie), who tells authorities about Keefer's secret. Ben, however, refuses to cooperate with officials' efforts to locate the escaped convict. Swamp Water was released in Great Britain under the title The Man Who Came Back. It was remade in 1952 as Lure of the Wilderness, with Brennan playing the same role. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Review
Swamp Water is a beautiful, hauntingly lyrical rural drama, adapted surprisingly faithfulness by Dudley Nichols from Vereen Bell's book -- only a few of the sensibilities regarding rural justice and vengeance in the novel have been softened, in keeping with the Hollywood Production Code of the period, but the emotional texture of the book is well captured. Director Jean Renoir, in his Hollywood debut, brings the same sensitivities to this drama that he subsequently brought to The Southerner. Dana Andrews, who usually played urban characters, proves surprisingly effective as Ben Ragan, the young backwoods hero of the piece, and he, Anne Baxter, and Walter Huston -- and especially Walter Brennan as Tom Keefer -- have beautifully convincing on-screen chemistry in their roles. Huston and Brennan, as two ends of a personal/moral lever at the center of the script (with Ragan and his conscience as the fulcrum), are perfect in their roles, and Baxter -- in her screen debut -- gives a heartbreakingly convincing performance as Keefer's daughter, a young woman wronged for events over which she had no role or control. The supporting players, who include Eugene Pallette, Joe Sawyer, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Ward Bond, are equally fine. And the cinematography by Lucien Ballard and J. Peverell Marley, makes this movie a joy to look at, as well as to watch, from beginning to end. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
