In den Sümpfen

Only viewed this movie once,when as an eleven year old , it first opened. I still recall the scene where Julie scurried away through the barn to hide from Andrews. Clawing like a black cat (with her raven hair matted as if it were a Brillo Pad.) I instantly fell head over heels in love with that gruff looking girl.

The fight scene , the cottonmouth attack still looms large in my memory. I'm 76 now, but would love to see it twenty more times and hark back to those innocent days, when a nickle candy bar could be bought for five cents .

Excellent movie (Also loved The Southerner)

I can remember seeing this movie as a kid and getting the bejesus scared out of me. The darkness and uncertainty of the swamp terrified my young imagination and the image of the skull atop a cross touched all my Roman Catholic primal fears. My impression of the swamp, i.e., crocs, gaters and snakes, topped with a dark image of the fugitive played by Walter Brennan, lasted for years. Now, I do recall there being a video (although none is listed here), because I did see it again a few years back. The shock of the darkness of the film was dulled by over 50 years of life but the Gothic quality of the story along with the fine characterization of Renoir makes this film a classic. Walter Huston is great in his curmudgeon role as the young Dana Andrews's father married to a younger woman who's getting moves laid on by ever villainous John Carridine. The presence of great character actors Guinn"Big Boy" Williams, Ward Bond and gravel-voiced Eugene Palette adds much to the texture of the film. Too, the young Anne Baxter is superb as the daughter of Brennan and the female interest of Dana Andrews. The story line seems a bit tame, by today's standards but holds up well. All in all, this is a satisfying film well done and provocative. Check it out.

Having seen almost all Renoir's works, I was eager to see this one, the master's first film of his american stint. If you have seen Renoir's The River (1951), one of his loveliest masterpieces, the feeling cames to you, when you are watching this 1941 movie, that you are seeing just a preparatory exercise for that later piece of art. Just listen Walter Brennan's lines when he first meet Dana Andrews about how the death of an individual begets new life elsewhere.

Sometimes also in the movie I had the resemblance of watching a John Ford movie, specially in the town scenes, more obvious in the ball scenes, the guy with the girl chatting, the dancers background, and suddenly a huge thug coming out, and the fight therefore. More hints about this: the writer is Dudley Nichols, a Ford habitual collaborator, and among the cast, John Carradine and Ward Bond, also from Ford's troup. Anyway, it's a Renoir. Watch it (it's short and pleasant, and hide two or three great moments.)

I'm not really familiar with Renoir's movies: I watched "The Woman on the Beach" a number of years ago and enjoyed it for Robert Ryan's performance, and its unusual plot and characters (especially Charles Bickford as the blind artist.) Unlike others, my appreciation of "Swamp Water" was not affected by its comparison to other films by the great French director. I came across "Swamp Water" online and, not knowing anything about it, initially thought it was either a horror movie or one of those cornpone looks at the "poor ole souls" of the deep South. The film's credits lifted my spirits, and assured me that I was in for a surprise. And I was. I love this movie: the cinematography, the subtle characterizations, the dialogue (especially Brennan's cosmic musings.) Dana Andrews (never my favorite actor, always to me a poor man's Robert Ryan) is superb, Walter Brennan, as usual, transcendent, the women complex and not condescended to, and the array of familiar character actors round out the cast with their usual more than competent contributions. Swamp Water has a psychological and emotional complexity unusual for such a simply plotted film, and its haunting evocation of the mysterious region in which it is set assures it will remain one of my favorites.

A swamp that is widely perceived by all the locals as impenetrable offers refuge to a convicted murderer who has been hiding out there for years and has learned its lessons well enough to actually get by quite well. Fear of the swamp and its cottonmouths and alligators is enough to keep any civilized person out, but when a hunter's dog jumps out of his canoe and gets lost in this swamp, its the love he (Dana Andrews) has for his dog that draws him deeper into the swamp and sets up the meeting with fugitive Walter Brennan. It turns out the swamp isn't so bad after all, as Andrews and Brennan team up to collect a valuable set of furs from the animals they've trapped. Back in the town the truth of the murder for which Brennan faces hanging emerges in a very well told story. Jean Renoir was able to bring the town into the swamp or vice versa in this beautifully filmed movie. For sure the best actor awards go to Walter Huston who plays Dana Andrews father, and whose second wife is being courted by another great, John Carradine. The primordial beauty of the swamp makes a nice contrast to the dramatic backwoods small town swamp of this slice of America.