THE SOUTHERNER (1945)

This seems to have been the film Jean Renoir was happiest with during his WWII California layover. (He moved permanently to the L.A. area, but made no films there after the late ‘40s.) And how ironic that this slice of near-documentary rural Americana should feel nearer his work in France then such French-set Hollywood films as THIS LAND IS MINE/’43 and DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID/’46. The story is a simple one: Zachary Scott stops picking cotton at a big outfit to work an unused tract of land to raise a crop of his own. With barely the bare necessities, wife Betty Fields, Grandma Beulah Bondi and the two young’uns start turning up the land, looking up a working well, fixing up the shack of a house and hunting up their supper. Structured by the four seasons*, it charts a series of problems bravely approached, if not always solved; unneighborly neighbors; and the beauty & ravages of nature. There are overstatements in some of the acting (Bondi a bit of a ham, Fields a bit too groomed); and some of the story construction tilts toward happy coincidence (and worse, convenience). But more is very strong, often moving. Scott, still early in his career, looks to be an incipient Gary Cooper (not that this happened), especially at one low point, arguing with God alone in the field. Faults and all, it’s a memorable, life-enhancing film, at times recalling special moments in John Ford (the dance scenes) and even D. W. Griffith (a flood sequence that might have come out of WAY DOWN EAST/’20). Fully worthy of Renoir. Something you can’t say about much of his Stateside work.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Renoir’s first Hollywood film, SWAMP WATER/’41, frustrated him with its studio-bound rural settings. Here, he’s freed shooting almost entirely on real locations. Though he’d triumphantly return to high studio artifice when called for as in FRENCH CANCAN/’55.  OR: Another back-to-the-farm saga, MINARI/’20, with surprising similarities in its cast of characters and events.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/01/minari-2020.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Remarkably for a little independent film, even Oscar® noted something special in this most unusual film for the time, giving it three nominations, including Renoir’s only one for Best Director. Up against Clarence Brown, Leo McCarey, Alfred Hitchcock, and Billy Wilder (the winner for LOST WEEKEND).

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Speaking of The Four Seasons, the famous Vivaldi violin concertos (long before they became a film staple/cliche) would make their movie debut as score to Renoir’s THE GOLDEN COACH/’52.