Wild River

Overview

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.

Directed by Elia Kazan

Top cast

Montgomery Clift

Chuck Glover

Lee Remick

Carol Garth Baldwin

Jo Van Fleet

Ella Garth

Albert Salmi

Hank Bailey

Jay C. Flippen

Hamilton Garth

James Westerfield

Cal Garth

Bruce Dern

Jack Roper

Barbara Loden

Betty Jackson

Frank Overton

Walter Clark

Malcolm Atterbury

Sy Moore

Robert Earl Jones

Sam Johnson (uncredited)

Details