The Southerner (film)

The Southerner is a 1945 American film directed by Jean Renoir, based on the 1941 novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Director, Original Music Score and Sound. Renoir was named Best Director by the National Board of Review, which also named the film the third best of 1945.

Sam Tucker Zachary Scott is a cotton picker in Texas who decides to start his own farm. He and wife Nona Betty Field, Granny Beulah Bondi and children Jot and Daisy set out with nothing but two mules and a bit of seed.The land they lease has no working well, so neighbor Henry Devers J. Carrol Naish reluctantly lets the Tuckers share his water supply. They nearly starve and freeze during a hard winter. Come spring, the child Jot falls ill with Spring Sickness and desperately needs milk and vegetables to survive, but general store owner Harmie Percy Kilbride refuses the Tuckers credit. ........

Source: Wikipedia