The River

1938 Documentary 31 minutes Directed by Pare Lorentz

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About The River

Thomas Chalmers narrates a trip along the Mississippi. The film shows timber cutting and farming washing topsoil into the Gulf of Mexico, then floods and farmers left poor. It ends on the Tennessee Valley Authority, presented as the start of holding the water and the land.

Cast & crew

More about The River

Pare Lorentz wrote and directed it and cut it with Lloyd Nosler. Floyd Crosby, Willard Van Dyke, and Stacy Woodard photographed it between October 1936 and March 1, 1937. The Farm Security Administration sponsored it after the Resettlement Administration was folded in. Paramount released it. The picture was budgeted at $50,000, with extra money for the flood footage. Alexander Smallens conducted the score. Lorentz published the narration as a book in 1938.

Themes

  • topsoil going into the Gulf
  • floods along the Mississippi
  • farmers left poor
  • the Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Mississippi
  • topsoil
  • flood
  • Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Thomas Chalmers

Background

The short was a New Deal argument for the Tennessee Valley Authority and against the loss of the watershed.

Making

Lorentz shot from the headwaters side of the valley down to New Orleans, then added flood footage beyond the first budget.

Audiences

Theater managers told Paramount, which released the film, that audiences applauded at every showing.

Look

Floyd Crosby, Willard Van Dyke, and Stacy Woodard shot the valley, including the flood sequences paid for after the main trip.

Music

Virgil Thomson wrote the score. Alexander Smallens conducted. Thomas Chalmers speaks the narration.

Preservation

The Library of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry in 1990.

Notes

  • The published narration was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
  • An encyclopedia entry dates a New Orleans premiere to October 20, 1937, and the production year as 1937.
  • Thomas Hardie Chalmers is the only credited speaker.

Awards

  • Best Documentary, Venice International Film Festival (1938)
  • National Film Registry (1990)

Scenes

  • The camera follows timber and farms sending soil downriver into the Gulf.
  • Flood water covers the farms.
  • The Tennessee Valley Authority is shown holding the water back.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (RiverThe1937)