The Southerner (1945)
“One family's struggle to grow a future from the bare earth.”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
Sam Tucker, weary of picking cotton for other men, gambles everything on a rundown farm where he can raise his own crop. With his wife Nona, their children, and a sharp-tongued grandmother, he confronts a leaking shack, a failing well, a sick child, and a bitter neighbor who refuses to share his water. French master Jean Renoir, working in Hollywood during his wartime exile, films the American South with the same humane, unsentimental eye he brought to his European classics, finding dignity in labor and resilience in hardship. The result is widely regarded as the finest of Renoir's American films.
Cast
About the Director
Jean Renoir — Jean Renoir regarded The Southerner as the American film closest to his heart, praising its freedom and its connection to the land. He drew naturalistic performances from his cast and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for the film.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
The Southerner is in the public domain in the United States. This independently produced United Artists release fell into the public domain because its copyright was not renewed after the initial 28-year term.
Behind the Scenes
Adapted from George Sessions Perry's novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand and released through United Artists in 1945, the film was independently produced by Robert Hakim and David L. Loew. It earned three Academy Award nominations, for Best Director, Best Score, and Best Sound.
Did You Know?
- Jean Renoir received his only Academy Award nomination for Best Director for The Southerner.
- Zachary Scott, usually cast as smooth villains, plays the heroic everyman Sam Tucker in a rare sympathetic leading role.
- The film was adapted from the author George Sessions Perry's novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand.
Reception & Legacy
Critics hailed the film for its honesty and visual poetry, and it has grown in stature as the high point of Renoir's Hollywood years. It is frequently ranked among the best American films about rural poverty, alongside The Grapes of Wrath.
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