Swamp Water (1941)

Swamp Water is a 1941 American film noir crime film directed by Jean Renoir and starring Walter Brennan and Walter Huston. Based on the novel by Vereen Bell, it was produced at 20th Century Fox. The film was shot on location at Okefenokee Swamp, Waycross, Georgia, USA.

Directors – Jean Renoir, Irving Pichel (uncredited)

Writers – Vereen Bell (novel), Dudley Nichols

Cast –
Walter Brennan as Tom Keefer
Walter Huston as Thursday Ragan
Anne Baxter as Julie
Dana Andrews as Ben
Virginia Gilmore as Mabel MacKenzie
John Carradine as Jesse Wick
Mary Howard as Hannah
Eugene Pallette as Sheriff Jeb McKane
Ward Bond as Tim Dorson
Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams as Bud Dorson (as Guinn Williams)
Russell Simpson as Marty McCord
Joe Sawyer as Hardy Ragan (as Joseph Sawyer)
Paul E. Burns as Tulle McKenzie (as Paul Burns)
Dave Morris as Barber
Frank Austin as Fred Ulm
Matt Willis as Miles Tonkin
Mae Marsh as Mrs. McCord (uncredited)

Watch “Swamp Water” (1941)

Plot

A local man, Ben (Dana Andrews) encounters a fugitive Tom Keefer (Walter Brennan) from a murder charge while hunting in the Okefenokee Swamp looking for his dog. The two form a partnership in which Ben sells the animals hunted and trapped by both until townsfolk become suspicious. Also, Ben helps Julie, Keefer’s daughter, who is living in straitened circumstances clean up and look more decent. Keefer is accused of murdering Deputy Shep Collins, but it was really the Dorson brothers who did so and then perjured themselves in evidence against Tom Keefer, assisted by Jesse Wick. Ben makes Wick confess so that Keefer will not be blamed anymore. He tries to take Keefer back to town where he can live a normal life, but they are shot at by the Dorson brothers. One of them sinks in a mudhole, and Keefer talks to the other man, saying he wants a normal life, and lets him go into the swamp. Ben and Keefer are found by the townsfolk. Once back in town, Keefer cleans up, and goes to the dance, smiling.