It's from a local French DVD so I kept the English and French languages plus French subs.
One of Ray's most beautifully bizarre projects (though he never fitted easily into the restrictions of genre), merging Western conventions with ecological and philosophical concerns as, in Florida at the end of the 1890s, teacher-turned-game warden Plummer takes on a gang of unruly, primitive poachers led by the awesomely charismatic Burl Ives, who are killing off the local rare birds for their fashionable, valuable plumage. With an often poetic script by Budd Schulberg and Joseph Brun's glistening location photography (in ravishing Technicolor), it effortlessly combines artifice with realism, and besides offering a strong argument in favour of conservation, also develops into an oblique meditation on the relativity of good and evil. Ives may spit in the face of God to win his hard-earned money through killing and commerce, but Ray makes no bones about his being closer to nature than Plummer.
Wind Across The Everglades is a strange and wonderful little movie, despite some clunky moments here and there -- that it has only a few is a bit amazing, as, according to cast member (and producer's daughter) Sandra Schulberg, director Nicholas Ray was so strung out on heroin, that he had to be replaced three weeks into shooting by her father Stuart Schulberg. In any case, the picture is filled with off-beat casting and moments, most of them well-captured (and many of them quite effective), and above all gives ample room for the viewer to enjoy Joseph Brun's amazing cinematography -- this is a gorgeous picture to watch, and with some of the unexpected compexities of Budd Schulberg's script (which recalls The Sea Wolf in some respects) to carry it, and an environmental message that's still relevant five decades later, Wind Across The Everglades has a lot to recommend it.
WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES, written by Budd Schulberg; directed by Nicholas Ray; produced by Stuart Schulberg; a Schulberg Production presented by Warner Brothers. At the Mayfair, Seventh Avenue at Forty-seventh Street. Running time; ninety-three minutes.
Cottonmouth . . . . . Burl Ives
Walt Murdock . . . . . Christopher Plummer
Mrs. Bradford . . . . . Gypsy Rose Lee
Aaron Nathanson . . . . . George Voskovec
Beef . . . . . Tony Galento
George . . . . . Howard I. Smith
Bigamy Bob . . . . . Emmett Kelly
Sawdust . . . . . Pat Henning
Naomi . . . . . Chana Eden
Perfesser . . . . . Curt Conway
Writer . . . . . Peter Falk
Slowboy . . . . . Fred Grossinger
Loser . . . . . Sammy Renick
One-Note . . . . . Toch Brown
Howard Ross Morgan . . . . . Frank Rothe
Judge Harris . . . . . MacKinlay K
