The Well (1951 film)
| The Well | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Leo C. Popkin Russell Rouse |
| Produced by |
Clarence Greene Leo C. Popkin |
| Screenplay by | Clarence Greene Russell Rouse |
| Starring |
Richard Rober Gwendolyn Laster Maidie Norman |
| Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo |
| Edited by | Chester Schaeffer |
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Production
company |
Cardinal Pictures
Harry Popkin Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Well is a 1951 American film noir directed by Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse and featuring Richard Rober, Gwendolyn Laster and Maidie Norman. It tackled the issue of racial tensions and collective behavior. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
The film centers around Carolyn, a five-year-old black girl who falls into an abandoned, overgrown well while picking flowers on her way to school one morning. Her parents seek assistance from Sheriff Ben Kellogg (Richard Rober) to help find her.
Carolyn's disappearance causes anger and confusion in the community, and various rumors quickly spread amongst the white and black populations when a white stranger, Claude Packard (Harry Morgan), is arrested on suspicion of it.
Packard, a mining engineer, is in town visiting his uncle, Sam Packard, a well-known local businessman, who attempts to use his influence to get his nephew out of police custody. This inflames the racial tension further, and when he is approached by Carolyn's relatives outside the police station, he suffers a heart attack, which is reported among the white population as a racial attack. Things quickly get out of hand as various black and white gangs starting attacking one another.
The Sheriff requests that the mayor order state assistance to put down the potentially serious disturbances and readies voluntary deputies to break up the growing white mob at Sam Packard's warehouse.
Before events can spiral completely out of control, Carolyn is found alive in the well but can't be easily extracted. It takes the combined efforts of all the townsfolk, and Claude Packard, to safely rescue her and return her to her family.
The film was shot on location in Marysville and Yuba City, California in 1950, and given the accents, it appears that the intention was not to portray a town in the South, but any small American town. The students in the classroom scenes were pupils at Marysville Elementary School.
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