A young bureaucrat for the Tennessee Valley Authority goes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of a stubborn octogenarian from her home on an island in the river, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

"The Wild Language... The Wild Hungers... The Wild Furies!"

Credits

Elia KazanDirector

Montgomery CliftChuck Glover

Lee RemickCarol Garth Baldwin

Jo Van FleetElla Garth

Albert SalmiHank Bailey