The Southerner **** (1945, Zachary Scott, Betty Field, J Carrol Naish, Beulah Bondi Percy Kilbride) – Classic Movie Review 7892

Zachary Scott stars as Sam Tucker, who battles to save his US Southern cotton farm from man and nature, in the 1945 drama The Southerner, a beautifully heartfelt, lyrical American film from esteemed French director Jean Renoir.

The Southerner can boast notable performances from a fine ensemble headed by the undervalued Scott, Betty Field as his wife Nona, J Carrol Naish as Devers, Beulah Bondi as the grandmother and Percy Kilbride as Harmie.

Renoir is able to pull off the difficult trick of making it simultaneously vividly realistic and poetically elegaic, and it is a gorgeous looking movie, superbly photographed in black and white by Lucien Andriot.

Renoir co-wrote the screenplay with Hugo Butler (adaptation), William Faulkner (uncredited) and Nunnally Johnson (uncredited) from George Sessions Perry’s novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand.

Also in the cast are Blanche Yurka, Norman Lloyd, Jay Gilpin, Charles Kemper, Jean Vanderwilt, Jack Norworth, Nestor Paiva, Estelle Taylor, Dorothy Granger, Noreen Roth, Paul Harvey, Paul E Burns, Earle Hodgins, Almira Sessions and Florence Bates.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7892

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