Wild River is a 1960 American drama film directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet.

It was filmed in the Tennessee Valley, and was adapted by Paul Osborn from two novels: Borden Deal's Dunbar's Cove and William Bradford Huie's Mud on the Stars, drawing for plot from Deal's story of a battle of wills between the nascent Tennessee Valley Authority and generations-old land owners, and from Huie's study of a rural Southern matriarchal family for characters and their reaction to destruction of their land, and the controversial employment of African-American laborers by the TVA.

Elderly Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet), matriarch of a large family that has lived on the island for decades, refuses to sell.

Chuck finds Ella criticizing President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal to her black farm hands and their families.

He then addresses the farmhands about working for the TVA, reasoning their leaving the island will force Ella to sell.

The mayor opposes Chuck's hiring "colored labor", saying it will cause problems with white workers.

R. J. Bailey (Albert Salmi), a cotton farmer whose black sharecroppers are quitting to work for the TVA, agrees to help scare Chuck from seeing Carol.

Infuriated, Bailey found a stick of wood about two inches thick, kidnapped the worker, brought him back to his farm, and beat him senseless.

Chuck rejects Hamilton and Cal's idea to have Ella declared legally incompetent so they can sell the land.

He reluctantly asks the U.S. marshal to remove Ella the next day, then goes to the island in a final attempt to persuade her to voluntarily leave.

While the local sheriff stands aside, believing the good ol' boys are harmless, the thugs shoot out a window, overturn Chuck's car, and drive Walter's truck into the side of the house.

[2] Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River, in northern Bradley County, Tennessee, upriver from Charleston, served as the fictional Garth Island,[3] and the city of Charleston's old business district served as the fictional city of Garthville.