THE SOUTHERNER
US, 1945, 92 minutes. Black and white.
Zachary Scott, Betty Field, J. Carrol Naish, Beulah Bondi, Percy Kilbride, Blanche Yurka, Norman Lloyd, Paul Harvey.
Directed by Jean Renoir.
The Southerner is based on a novel by George Sessions Perry, Hold Autumn In Your Hand. It is in the vein of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, focusing on the poor in the South and the struggles with nature, poverty, their neighbours.
The film focuses on the Tucker family, a very good role for Zachary Scott, usually seen as a villain (as in Mildred Pierce from the same year). Betty Field is also good as the careworn wife. There are character actors like J. Carrol Naish as the neighbour, Beulah Bondi as the outspoken Granny, Percy Kilbride, before he became Pa Kettle.
The film captures the atmosphere of the South, the farms, the people and their struggles against nature. The film was directed by Jean Renoir, considered one of the greatest of French directors, who had made a number of fine films in France in the 1930s including Rules of the Game, La Marseillaise, La Grande Illusion. He came to the United States during the war and made a number of films before returning to France and continuing his career. He died in the United States, having become an American citizen.
1. The work of Jean Renoir? In France? The influence of the French style, photography, performance? Translated to the United States? In the John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath vein?
2. California and the black and white photography, the farm, the town? The musical score?
3. The title of the film, the title of the original novel? Texas, the 1930s, the plight of the poor, the dignity of the poor? The film as a piece of Americana? With universal appeal?
4. The photo album, the perspective? The seasons and the passing of one year?
5. The cotton farmers, the crops, the owners, share-cropping, renting, exploitation, poverty – and the possibilities of moving out of poverty?
6. The Tucker family, Sam and Nona, their hard work, their children, the role of the grandmother in the house, Uncle Peter? The death, his words in the field, urging them to own their own land? The funeral, the hard decision? The grandmother, the move and all the goods, the new house, its state of dilapidation, the collapse, the coffee, the rain? The nature of the soil? Clearing the house, the land? The water and the neighbours, Devers and his attitude? The hooks and the fishing? The family at home, cold, the blankets, the coat? Hunting, hungry? Smoke and the possum? The vegetables and the spring? The sickness? Weeping? The doctor, the advice, the vegetables, town? Devers and his refusal to give the milk? Growing peace? Finley and the vegetables? The struggles, the lead pencil and the bond? The rain, the devastation, rescuing Tim? The cow? Nona clearing things, the work of the grandmother? The future for the family?
7. The characters, American, simple, good, proud? Nona and her love? The mutual love of Sam? Tough, ignorant, yet coping? The children, their joy, the hard life?
8. The grandmother and her age, her character, growling, her dress, tagging along, at the funeral, leaving, sitting, in the rain, complaining? Hungry, greedy, the issue of the blanket, mellowed by the honey? Her illness and death? The wedding, the cake? The end?
9. Devers and his story, a hard man, jealous, fighting, the fish? Becky and his refusal about the milk? Finley and the fight, the milk and the vegetables?
10. The mother and her help, Harmie and the store, the wedding?
11. Tim, the factory, the bar, the rescue?
12. Portrait of Americans – and the reaffirmation of basic American values?
