The Southerner
About The Southerner
Cotton picker Sam Tucker takes his wife Nona, their two children, and an old uncle onto a broken farm to grow his own crop. The first year brings sickness, a flood, and a neighbor who will not help. Zachary Scott plays Sam. Betty Field plays Nona. Jean Renoir directed.
Cast & crew
More about The Southerner
David L. Loew and Robert and Raymond Hakim produced. Renoir, Hugo Butler, William Faulkner, and Nunnally Johnson worked on the script, from George Sessions Perry's 1941 novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand. Lucien Andriot photographed. Werner Janssen composed. Gregg G. Tallas edited. United Artists released it. 92 minutes. Beulah Bondi and J. Carrol Naish are billed. Set in Texas in the early 1940s. Renoir's only Academy Award nomination, for directing. Also nominated for score and sound. The National Board of Review named him best director and ranked the film third for 1945. A copy is on the Internet Archive as TheSoutherner.
Themes
Look
Lucien Andriot shot the cotton rows and the flooded field.
Music
Werner Janssen composed the score.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The novel's title is Hold Autumn in Your Hand, not The Southerner.
- Faulkner is one of the writers on the record.
- Bondi plays the older relative in the house.
- The three Oscar nominations did not win.
Awards
- National Board of Review, Best Director (Jean Renoir)
- National Board of Review, third among the films of 1945
Scenes
- The flood takes the crop they have just started.
- The uncle sickens in the shack while the rows are still in.
Influenced by
- George Sessions Perry's Hold Autumn in Your Hand (1941)
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheSoutherner)
