Swamp Water (1941)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

While participating in a posse to hunt down the fugitive Tom Keefer (Walter Brennan), who is accused of murdering a local inhabitant, the young Ben Ragan (Dana Andrews) loses his dog Trouble in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. He returns to the swamp to seek his dog out but he is captured by Tom. Soon he learns that Tom Keeler is innocent and has a daughter, Julie (Anne Baxter), who is raised by the local merchant Marty McCord (Russell Simpson). Ben has an argument with his father Thursday Ragan (Walter Huston) and he moves to a shanty that belongs to Marty. Then he associate to Tom Keeler to hunt animals in the swamp and he shares the profit of selling furs with Julie. Soon they fall in love with each other. One day, Ben witnesses Bud Dorson (Guinn Williams) and his brother Tim Dorson (Ward Bond) stealing Marty's pigs. There is a meeting in the village with Sheriff Jeb McKane (Eugene Palette) to find the thief and Ben's ex-girlfriend Mabel MacKenzie (Virginia Gilmore) is jealous of Ben and accuses Tom Keefer. The sheriff organizes a search party to hunt Tom down, but Ben presses Jesse Wick (John Carradine), who is harassing his stepmother Hannah (Mary Howard), and he finds who the real killers are. He wants Tom to return to the village, but Tom suspects that Ben might intend to betray him. "Swamp Water" is an entertaining and dramatic adventure. The locations and the camera work in the swamp are impressive. The choreography of the fight and the quick sand in the swamp "swallowing" the criminal are very realistic. The direction of Jean Renoir and the cinematography are amazing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Segredo do Pântano" ("The Secret of the Swamp")

At the time this was shot there was a distinct lack of sound technique and for a while it's disconcerting to hear Dana Andrews and Walter Brennan talking in the heart of a swamp in the the clear 'clean' tones that all but scream 'Post-sync'. Renoir was given a mish mosh of a cast for his US debut, Walter Brennan, Eugene Palette, Dana Andrews, Ann Baxter, Ward Bond, Russell Simpson, John Carradine, not the kind of mix that works particularly well. Andrews sticks out like a sore thumb - he's a fine actor but he has 'urban' written all over him whereas most of the others can pass for rural. The plot is our old friend the innocent man framed for a murder he didn't commit just transplanted from the big city to the big - seven hundred miles - swamp. Interesting curio with Andrews rehearsing for the Ox-Bow Incident.

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.

Went an' bought me this here DVD but 'taint as good as I hoped, ah reckon. Yep, might oughta got stuck for a wad o'money.To tell you the truth, I don't know what I was thinking but I thought that IMDb's (over)rating of this picture would foretell some lively entertainment. I don't know why I thought a movie about backwoods country folk would be either lively or entertaining and I should have gone with my first instinct. It had an impressive cast, a renown director and a screenplay by Dudley Nichols - what more could you ask for.Well, for one thing, a more compelling story. Apparently, not an awful lot happens in that neck of the woods. There was a fist fight, some arguing among the locals and a country dance. Oh, and John Carradine tried to hit on Walter Huston's wife. Most of the story is devoted to a character study between Dana Andrews, a passable actor, and Walter Brennan, a better one. Brennan is the nominal star of the picture as a fugitive from justice, but no one pursues him or even looks for him. But Huston, America's best film actor, is severely underutilized. To watch him was the main reason I bought the movie. It seems to have been filmed mostly on a soundstage with a couple of outdoor shots thrown in and has the feel of a filmed stageplay.Well, ya cain't win 'em all. And I ain't recommendin' this pitcher to ya ennaways because it ain't interestin'. And that's a natchrel fact.