Swamp Water (1941)

Looking for his dog, a young man (Dana Andrews, very good) ventures into the dreaded alligator and cottonmouth infested swamps where he encounters an escaped criminal (Walter Brennan) on the run from the law hiding out in the bog. The two form an unlikely bond. Based on the novel by Vereen Bell and directed by Jean Renoir. Like many European directors, Renoir fled Europe when the Nazis came to power and settled in Hollywood. With such classics as RULES OF THE GAME, GRAND ILLUSION and LE BETE HUMAINE on his resume, this strange little film set in the swamps of Georgia seemed like an unusual choice for a newly arrived expatriate's first American film. Shot on location in the Okefenokee swamps, the everglades scenes have an almost beautiful but spectral and spellbinding quality to them. It's certainly as good as anything else Renoir shot during his Hollywood stay (1940-1947). There's an unsettling subplot that Renoir doesn't fully exploit. Walter Huston as an older man married to a young woman (Mary Howard) who he suspects may have a lover played by a rather creepy John Carradine. With Anne Baxter as Brennan's daughter, Virginia Gilmore as Andrews' bitchy girlfriend, Ward Bond, Eugene Pallette and Mae Marsh. Fox remade the film in 1952 renamed LURE OF THE WILDERNESS with Brennan playing the same role.