1941 - SWAMP WATER, Jean Renoir's first American film

Jean Renoir, one France's most important filmmakers was invited by Darryl F Zanuck to make a film in Hollywood.  Renoir was a filmmaker who took his time with story and actors,.  Considering Hollywood's production methods, Renoir was in for a big disappointment.  There are numerous memos from Zanuck complaining about Renoir's slow pace and what he called his over attention to detail.

The film is set in Georgia in the Okefenokee Swamp, but other than a few opening shots the film is entirely filmed back in Hollywood at the Fox Studios.  For a film about rural people living in Georgia the film is cast with the usual bunch of Hollywood actors.  Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan,Walter Huston and Anne Baxter.  Ward Bond and Gunn “Big Boy” Williams also show up.  Nothing like using privileged rich Hollywood actors to bring authenticity to a film about poor rural southerners.

I spite of Renoir's battles with Zanuck and the Fox executives the film was one of their bigger moneymakers that year.  However Renoir was obviously not happy with the way it turned out.  The film has a few what I would call poetic touches but for the most part this is the usual Hollywood hokum about the"little people."

 

Written by Dudley Nichols, the running time is 90 minutes.