Wild River (film)

In 1937, Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift), the new head of the Tennessee Valley Authority's land purchasing office, arrives in Garthville, Tennessee, a town located upstream from a new hydroelectric dam. Glover is supervising the clearing of the land to be flooded. He first needs to acquire Garth Island on the Tennessee River. Elderly Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet), matriarch of the large family that has lived on the island for decades, refuses to sell. To avoid bad publicity, the TVA wants to acquire the island without force.

Clearing the land is behind schedule because the mayor uses only white labor. Chuck goes to Garth Island, but Ella and the other Garth women, including Ella's granddaughter Carol Baldwin (Lee Remick), ignore him. Glover tries reasoning with Ella's three adult sons, Hamilton (Jay C. Flippen), Cal (James Westerfield), and Joe John, but relocating means their having to work for a living.

Chuck is forced to leave, but Hamilton later invites him back to speak with Ella. Chuck finds Ella criticizing President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal to her black farm hands and their families. Chuck stresses the benefits the dam will bring, but Ella denounces dams and the taming of rivers as going "against nature." Ella then shows Chuck the family cemetery on the island's highest point.

Chuck learns that Carol is a widow with two small children. She returned to the island after her husband died. She is expected to marry Walter Clark (Frank Overton), a businessman in town. Chuck advises her against marrying if she does not love him. Chuck talks to the farmhands about working for the TVA, reasoning their leaving the island will force Ella to sell. Carol invites Chuck to her former home off the island. They spend the night together and are soon falling in love.

The mayor opposes Chuck's hiring "colored labor", saying it will cause problems with white workers. Chuck is urged to create segregated work gangs and pay black workers less. Chuck refuses despite receiving veiled threats. Carol and Chuck spend another night together, unaware that Walter Clark has seen them. The next morning Ella's workers and their families leave the island. Ella remains alone except for her field hand, Sam, who loyally refuses to go. Ella knows about Carol and Chuck. When Carol begs her grandmother to stay at her house, she orders her off the island.

R. J. Bailey (Albert Salmi), a cotton farmer whose black workers are quitting to work for the TVA, agrees to help scare Chuck from seeing Carol. Walter lures Chuck to his hotel room where Bailey is waiting. After Chuck treats him decently regarding their rivalry for Carol, Walter warns Chuck about Bailey. Bailey demands the government compensate him for a black worker who quit to work for Chuck at a higher wage. He had forced the man to return and beaten him so badly he was out of work for two days. When Chuck refuses, Bailey beats him and obtains the money.

Chuck and Walter go to the island to see Ella. Chuck admits misunderstanding her fight to protect her dignity. The following day, Chuck learns that the dam's flood gates will be closed in a few days and Ella must be evicted immediately. Chuck rejects Hamilton and Cal's idea to have Ella declared legally incompetent so they can sell the land. He reluctantly asks the U.S. marshal to remove Ella the next day, then goes to the island in a final attempt to persuade her to voluntarily leave. She refuses.

Carol wants to go with Chuck when he moves on to a new assignment, though he is unsure. Walter arrives to warn them that Bailey and his men are coming to terrorize them. While the local sheriff stands aside, believing they are harmless, the thugs shoot out a window, overturn Chuck's car, and drive Walter's truck into the side of the house. Refusing to be driven off, Chuck confronts Bailey, but he is knocked out. The sheriff then runs off the gang.

Chuck and Carol marry. The next day, with Chuck and Carol present, Ella is evicted from the island as her former workers fell the trees. At her new home, Ella sits on the porch, refusing to speak. Soon after, Carol tells Chuck that Ella just died. Before leaving the valley, Chuck and Carol join her family and former workers to bury Ella in the family plot, the only part of Garth Island above water in the new lake.

• Montgomery Clift as Chuck Glover
• Lee Remick as Carol Garth Baldwin
• Jo Van Fleet as Ella Garth
• Albert Salmi as R.J. Bailey
• Jay C. Flippen as Hamilton Garth
• James Westerfield as Cal Garth
• Barbara Loden as Betty Jackson
• Frank Overton as Walter Clark
• Malcolm Atterbury as Sy Moore
• Bruce Dern as Jack Roper (uncredited)
• Robert Earl Jones as Sam Johnson (uncredited)

Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River, in northern Bradley County, Tennessee, upriver from Charleston, served as the fictional Garth Island,[2] and the city of Charleston's old business district served as the fictional city of Garthville. A peninsula northwest of Cleveland, Tennessee, on Chickamauga Lake, was used, and a studio for interior shooting was created in the Cleveland armory. A few other locations in rural Bradley County near Charleston were also used.[3] Principal photography began on October 19, 1959.[4][5] On January 3, 1960, Kazan left for his New York home, and filming was completed over the following week.[6]

The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive.[7]

• Wild River at IMDb
• Wild River at the TCM Movie Database
• Wild River at AllMovie
• Wild River at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Wild River at Rotten Tomatoes