Apart from the fact that it comes across in a curiously cool way, this Elia Kazan film is one of the finest examples in films of an evocation of a particular time and place, in this case the Tennessee Valley area of the early Thirties. Brilliantly controlled performances from Montgomery Clift, nicely edgy as the water authority agent sent to deal with a difficult situation; Lee Remick, creating touching moments as the widow who falls for him; Albert Salmi, making a superb smiling sadist of the local bully; and consummate character actress Jo Van Fleet, as usual playing a woman years beyond her own age, as the matriarch who refuses to budge from her property so that the land might be flooded. A rare example of a film adapted from two novels: William Bradford Huie's Mud on the Stars, and Borden Deal's Dunbar's Cove. In a supporting role, Bruce Dern makes his film debut.

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