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The middle-aged sheriff is introduced contemplating the symbolism of a dammed river, the police-car radio reminds him to bring the corn home as requested by the missus. The Tennessee lawman bored and horny, "you know, not much action around here, huh," Gregory Peck game for a methodical corroding of his iconic righteousness. The mountain girl (Tuesday Weld) catches his eye, the affair gets the approval of her father (Ralph Meeker) in exchange for overlooking his moonshine operation. "People here just try to survive, that's all," the protagonist tells the prying Fed (Lonny Chapman), with his wife (Estelle Parsons) he grows philosophical. "People who care about each other can't even pretend to know everything about each other. Don't you agree?" "I guess only enemies can pretend that." La Chienne in the Appalachians, John Frankenheimer on desire and ennui following The Gypsy Moths. A man's spiritual stupor watching Jerry Lewis at the drive-in, his revival with the nymphet at the dilapidated sanctuary, his fall at the canal that swallows the corpse of his deputy. (As the rotten subordinate, Charles Durning brings malevolent juice to the grayish surroundings, and has his own domestic strife to work out with his better half: "Why don't you go to hell?" "Tomorrow.") Montages of weather-beaten visages bracket the yarn, though Greek chorus duties fall to Johnny Cash's gravelly ballads one year ahead of Leonard Cohen in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. "Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood / And you're the one I need." It takes a baling hook to break the spell, Old Hollywood's pillar of rectitude is left crumpled in his stained uniform. Lumet is concurrent with his own obscure Southern folly, The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots. With Jeff Dalton, Freddie McCloud, Jane Rose, Nora Denney, and J.C. Evans.
--- Fernando F. Croce |