Wild River (film)
- See also:U.S. National Wild and Scenic Rivers. Not to be confused with The River Wild.
| Wild River | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Elia Kazan |
| Produced by | Elia Kazan |
| Written by |
Borden Deal (novel) William Bradford Huie (novel) Paul Osborn |
| Starring |
Montgomery Clift Lee Remick |
| Music by | Kenyon Hopkins |
| Cinematography | Ellsworth Fredricks, ASC |
| Editing by | William Reynolds |
| Release dates | 1960 |
| Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,595,000[1] |
| Box office | $1,500,000 (US/ Canada)[2] |
Wild River is a 1960 film directed by Elia Kazan starring Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Salmi and Jay C. Flippen filmed on location in the Tennessee Valley. It was adapted by Paul Osborn from two novels – Borden Deal's Dunbar's Cove and William Bradford Huie's Mud on the Stars.
In 2002, Wild River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
A young idealistic Tennessee Valley Authority administrator, Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift), comes to a small town in Tennessee to enforce the clearing of the land to be flooded by a new dam on the Tennessee River in the early 1930s. An aging 80-year-old matriarch, Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet who was only 45 at the time), refuses to sell her land to the federal government, and the film anticipates much of the environmental debates concerning the artificial control of rivers.[3]
Glover falls in love with the matriarch's granddaughter, Carol Garth Baldwin (Lee Remick).
The film also portrays some of the racial issues in the South after the Great Depression.
Production
Exterior locations for Wild River were filmed on Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River, near Charleston, Tennessee; in the town's old business district; and on a peninsula west of Cleveland, Tennessee, on Chickamauga Lake. A studio for interior shooting was also created in the Cleveland armory.[4]
Cast
- Montgomery Clift as Chuck Glover
- Lee Remick as Carol Garth Baldwin
- Jo Van Fleet as Ella Garth
- Albert Salmi as Hank Bailey
- Jay C. Flippen as Hamilton Garth
- James Westerfield as Cal Garth
- Barbara Loden as Betty Jackson
- Frank Overton as Walter Clark
- Malcolm Atterbury as Sy Moore
- Bruce Dern as Jack Roper (uncredited)
- Robert Earl Jones as Sam Johnson (uncredited)
References
- ↑ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 252
- ↑ "Rental Potentials of 1960", Variety, 4 January 1961 p 47. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
- ↑ Weiler, A.H. "Movies: About Wild River". The New York Times.
- ↑ TED STRONGINCHARLESTON, TENN.. "CHARTING A 'WILD RIVER,' TENNESSEE-STYLE :Real Sites, Citizens Add to Flavor Of T.V.A. Drama Now Being Made. " New York Times (1923–current file) 29 Nov. 1959,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2007), ProQuest. Web. 5 Nov. 2010.
External links
- Wild River at the Internet Movie Database
- Wild River at allmovie
| ||||||||||||||