Driftwood is a 1947 American drama film produced and directed by Allan Dwan and starring Ruth Warrick, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger and Charlotte Greenwood.

We then discover that Dr. Webster is conducting research on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and has a number of infected ticks on his porch, making his home a dangerous place for a young girl.

We also learn that he has applied for a grant to teach and study at an institute in San Francisco, and that he is hoping to hear a positive response from them via the mail any day now.

Murph gives Jenny a much-needed bath, during which he fills her in on some of the back stories behind the local characters in town, along with some of his folksy philosophy about men and women and marriage.

Jenny, who has grown up with her great-grandfather in isolation, has learned that it is important to tell the truth, and takes most things very literally.

Steve tells Clem's father that they should have had the boy vaccinated earlier, but that there is no medicine now to cure the disease, and that he must simply wait and hope for the best.

However, Steve then shows up, and insists that the Mayor's son receive a medical examination to determine the extent of his alleged injuries.

Murph, Steve and the judge them summarily subject the boy to a visual examination, with all three agreeing that he shows no sign of injuries to his posterior.

However the Institute tells them that Dr. Nicholas Adams is the only person who can answer their question, and he can't be reached, since he is driving to Colorado.

Steve asks the local radio station to broadcast an emergency alert, and Dr. Adams hears it, and calls, and they found out the correct dosage just in time to administer the serum and cure Jenny.

Dr. Adams says that they have drawn enough blood from the dog to serve their purposes, and so relinquish their claim on him, leaving him to round out the happy home forming with Steve, Susan and Jenny.

On February 1, 2018, Richard Brody of The New Yorker praised Driftwood as an "electrifying, eccentric masterwork" from director Allan Dwan, a film that has a "near-journalistic devotion to detail" and "both typifies and expands Dwan’s core inspiration: his dramatization of a thick tangle of social connections and conflicting lines of power and passion that seemingly bring the town itself to life along with its individual characters."

[1] A new restoration of Driftwood by Paramount Pictures, The Film Foundation, and Martin Scorsese was screened at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on February 2, 2018.

The screening was part of the museum's program of showcasing 30 restored films from the library of Republic Pictures curated by Scorsese.