A real gem, in the mode of The River (another river features prominently), but tougher. (Talking of rivers, it seems very like that Vilmos Zsigmond film, The River, though there's no official remake credit.)
Zachary Scott and Betty Field (couldn't believe I didn't recognise her from Kings Row) are the farmers, with Beulah Bondi the insufferable (well, human) grandmother (it's interesting that in the opening scene it's the little girl that's tormenting her with a snake). With J Carrol Naish as the understandably bitter neighbour, Norman Lloyd his horrid son, Percy Kilbride, Charles Kemper, Blanche Yurka.
Fairly simply filmed, often with static camera, but those scenes towards the end in the fast flowing river are truly exciting. Wonderful turns of events, like the thieving barman, and the neighbour fight that ends with the giant catfish. Hugo Butler adapted George Sessions Perry's novel. Lucien Andriot shot it, the music's by Werner Janssen.
Must get into Renoir more.
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