''Wind Across the Everglades'' is a 1958 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Nicholas Ray. Ray was fired from the film before production was finished, and several scenes were completed by screenwriter
Budd Schulberg, who also supervised the editing. Chris Fujiwara wrote on Turner Classic Movies that the film is "an acid test for auteurists, one of those special films that, while ignored or despised for the most part, are cherished and fiercely defended by those who love great American directors."
The film stars
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
, features
Christopher Plummer in his first lead role (and his second film role overall) and introduces
Chana Eden, who plays the leading lady, and a young
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Columbo (character), Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/American Broadcasting Company, ABC series ''Columbo'' (196 ...
, who plays a minor role. Former stripper
Gypsy Rose Lee and circus clown
Emmett Kelly also are among those in an unusual cast.
It was filmed on location in
Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the Un ...
in
Technicolor
Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...
.
Plot
Set in the early 20th century, the film follows a
game warden
A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician/technologist, game warden, park ranger, forest watcher, forest guar ...
who arrives in Florida in the hopes of enforcing conservation laws. He soon finds himself pitted against Cottonmouth, the leader of a fierce group of bird
poachers. The film is loosely based upon the life and death of
Guy Bradley, an early game warden who in 1905 was shot and killed by
plume hunters in the Everglades.
[Wilbanks, William. ''Forgotten Heroes: Police Officers Killed in Early Florida, 1840–1925''. Paducah, KY: Turner Pub. Co., 1998. pg. 83.]
Cast
*
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
as Cottonmouth
*
Christopher Plummer as Walt Murdock
*
Gypsy Rose Lee as Mrs. Bradford
*
George Voskovec as Aaron Nathanson
*
Tony Galento as Beef
* Howard I. Smith as George Liggett
*
Emmett Kelly as Bigamy Bob
*
Pat Henning as Sawdust
*
Chana Eden as Naomi Nathanson
*
Curt Conway as Perfessor
*
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Columbo (character), Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/American Broadcasting Company, ABC series ''Columbo'' (196 ...
as Writer
*
Fred Grossinger as Slowboy
*
Sammy Renick as Loser
* Toch Brown as One-note
* Frank Rothe as Howard Ross Morgan
*
MacKinlay Kantor as Judge Harris
* Cory Osceola as Billy One-Arm
Critical reputation
Due to Ray's having been fired from the production before the film was completed, ''Wind Across the Everglades'' holds a contentious place in film scholarship. In a short review of the film, critic
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...
described it as "a kind of
litmus test for
auteurists".
[Chicago Reader: Wind Across the Everglades](_blank)
/ref> After citing the film's editorial history, Rosenbaum goes on to say that "Ray's masterful use of color and mystical sense of equality between the antagonists (also evident in '' Rebel Without a Cause'' and '' Bitter Victory'') are made all the more piquant here by his feeling for folklore and outlaw ethics as well as his cadenced '' mise en scene''."
See also
* List of American films of 1958
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Nicholas Ray
1958 films
1958 drama films
American drama films
1950s English-language films
Films directed by Nicholas Ray
Films set in Florida
Films set in the 1900s
Films shot in Florida
Films about hunting
Films scored by Paul Sawtell
Films scored by Bert Shefter
Films with screenplays by Budd Schulberg
Warner Bros. films
1950s American films
Everglades in fiction
English-language drama films