Details
Movie Description
Zachary Scott stars as Sam Tucker in this story of a Texas sharecropper who decides, with the support of his wife Nona (Betty Fields), to buy a small piece of land and work for himself. The property they buy is rundown and with their young children, they must struggle to survive. A misanthropic neighbor, Devers (J. Carroll Naish), who grudgingly offers them the use of his well but refuses the milk they need when their son, Jot (Jay Gilpin), is dangerously ill, sets the tone for much that will follow.
Synopsis
A harsh, unsentimental view of rural life in the Southern United States, THE SOUTHERNER stars Zachary Scott as Sam Tucker, a sharecropper who has spent his life picking cotton. Taking to heart the dying words of his Uncle Pete (Paul E. Burns), he decides to buy a small piece of land and try to make it work as a family farm.The scrap of land he's able to afford needs a great deal of work, but his wife Nona (Betty Field) and his children Jot (Jay Gilpin) and Daisy (Bunny Sunshine) pitch in. Their misanthropic neighbor, Devers (J. Carroll Naish), allows them to use water from his well, but in the winter, when Jot becomes extremely ill, he refuses to lend them the milk the doctor prescribes. Although the boy survives, Sam finds that Devers's attitude is shared by local grocer Harmie (Percy Kilbride) and others in the mean-spirited little hamlet. Running low on food, Sam contemplates the offer of a factory job, but decides to hold out until after the harvest. William Faulkner contributed to the script of this superb portrait of struggling farmers, which director Jean Renoir considered the best of his American films.
Film Notes
The film was released on April 30, 1945.
The film was shot in California.
The film was banned in Tennessee and attacked throughout the South for its "sordid" depiction of Sourthern life.
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