Swamp Water

When Ben (Dana Andrews) heads into the dangerous Okefenokee Swamp to search for his missing hunting dog, he finds fugitive Tom Keefer (Walter Brennan) living like a wild man. After a rough beginning, Ben and Tom grow to trust each other, and Tom reveals that he was falsely convicted of murder, which is why he's hiding out. Ben promises to look in on Tom's daughter Julie (Anne Baxter), which leads to romance, but when townsfolk begin to suspect that Ben's frequent trips into the swamp may be connected to Keefer, everyone is put in jeopardy.

This was one of the few American films that French master Renoir worked on, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. He and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought over everything, particularly location shooting, which Renoir preferred, versus studio shooting, which the cost-conscious Zanuck wanted. Most of the film ended up being shot in the studio, but some location shots were done in the real Okefenokee by dialogue director Irving Pichel. The movie is okay as far as films about "backwoods simple folk" subgenre movies go.

The cast is good, especially Brennan, but Walter Huston is wasted as Andrews' disapproving father. Anne Baxter replaced the fired Linda Darnell, and while I normally prefer Darnell, I don't think she would have been right for this part. Baxter has a certain feral look to her eyes that fit the wild-child role, even if her perfectly drawn eye brows don't. As for director Renoir, he accused Zanuck of butchering the film in the editing process, and canceled his Fox contract as soon as he was able.