Wild River (1960)

A TVA bureaucrat comes to the river to do what none of his predecessors have been able to do - evict a stubborn octogenarian from her island before the rising waters engulf her.

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Paul Osborn (screenplay), William Bradford Huie (based on novels by)

Stars:

Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Montgomery Clift	...	Chuck Glover
Lee Remick	...	Carol Garth Baldwin
Jo Van Fleet	...	Ella Garth
Albert Salmi	...	Hank Bailey
Jay C. Flippen	...	Hamilton Garth (as J.C. Flippen)
James Westerfield	...	Cal Garth
Barbara Loden	...	Betty Jackson
Frank Overton	...	Walter Clark
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Sy Moore

Storyline

A young field administrator for the TVA comes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam on the Tennessee River. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of an elderly woman from her home on an island in the River, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter.

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Plot Keywords:

national film registry | southern gothic | river | tennessee | island | 

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Taglines:

The Wild Language...The Wild Hungers...The Wild Furies!

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Genres:

Drama | History | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Woman and the Wild River

Filming Locations:

Cleveland, Tennessee, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) 4-Track Stereo

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the time of the film, Clift was an alcoholic. Kazan extracted a promise from him that he would not drink during the shoot. With the help of his sympathetic co-stars, Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet, he kept his word.

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Goofs

At the very end of the movie, as Chuck and his new family are departing the movie story's location and are flying over and looking down on the now newly flooded island that had been his new wife's old home. This flooded island would actually have to be on the reservoir side of the damn when they closed the dam's flood gates that would cause the reservoir's waters to rise. However, in the very next shot their plane is shown approaching the damn from over the un-flooded river side. The reservoir where the flooded old home island they were just looking down on would in reality have to be on the other side of the damn they are now shown to be flying toward and over.

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Quotes

Chuck Glover: Betty, what, uh... How would you go about getting her off the island?
Betty Jackson: [sternly] I'd let her drown.
Chuck Glover: Well, that's one way.

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Connections

Featured in The 71st Annual Academy Awards (1999)

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Soundtracks

Abide with Me
(uncredited)
Anglican Christian hymn
Lyrics from poem by Henry F. Lyte
Music "Eventide" by William H. Monk
[Heard during kids' bath]

User Reviews

my forty-year search rewarded

There is little to add to the eloquent appreciations of Wild River by other users. Still, I want to pay my tribute. My father took me to see the film when I was a little girl and it made such an impression on me I have been searching for it for years. Odd, since I remembered nothing of the plot, retaining only fleeting images of autumn colours, Lee Remick's autumnal hair, the old ferry, an indelible impression of Montgomery Clift's face, the old woman surrounded by still 'figures in a landscape'. And the creation of a unique atmosphere so tangible, so lyrical, so elegiac it stayed with me for 40+ years. I've been wanting to know why it clung to me so. And wondering why it seemed to have disappeared without trace. This Christmas, in the fullness of time, my niece presented me with the DVD and I have at last seen it again. Why did it affect me so profoundly? That one's easy. Why had the film disappeared. That one's complex, as you know. What I hadn't expected was that stunning performance from the incomparable Jo Van Fleet. No Oscar? Were they mad? It is intensely interesting and sobering to reflect how politics can hold art hostage.