While this lacks the production values of that MGM blockbuster, this is still a pretty good adventure yarn, a "Southern", not quite west, yet a film that involves completely the great outdoors and its wild life of all kinds. Steve Cochran is escorting his brother Warren Stevens through the Florida Everglades so he can claim property he supposedly owns, and they end up lost in the swamp where, bitten by a poisonous snake, Stevens is at the mercy of a widow (Carole Matthews), her mother-in-law (Ruth Foreman) and Matthews' son (Spencer Fox). Cochran learns a thing or two about survival as well as the fact that his brother isn't the honest, upstanding guy he believed him to be. They deal also with Seminole Indians who hate the white man, some rubber alligators and the extreme heat which doesn't aide Stevens in his attempt to recover or his mood.
While this isn't exactly filmed in Technicolor, the process they use does add a unique mood to this enjoyable, fast-moving adventure that won't tax you, and gives quite a few good thrills. A bond is created between Cochran and Fox (taking Cochran on a nature tour which results in a reel of similarly filmed stock foogage), and this of course, brings on a romance between Cochran and Matthews which doesn't exactly please her suspicious mother-in-law. It wraps up nice and neatly, your typical easy plot, and other than Fox (who seems to be screaming most of his lines to ensure that the sound man will pick up his voice), the acting is credible. Not bad for an independent programmer, and one I'll re-visit again in spite of the snakes crawling over the injured Stevens, the rubber alligator wrestling match and the sudden presence of a scorpion on Cochran's face.
While this isn't exactly filmed in Technicolor, the process they use does add a unique mood to this enjoyable, fast-moving adventure that won't tax you, and gives quite a few good thrills. A bond is created between Cochran and Fox (taking Cochran on a nature tour which results in a reel of similarly filmed stock foogage), and this of course, brings on a romance between Cochran and Matthews which doesn't exactly please her suspicious mother-in-law. It wraps up nice and neatly, your typical easy plot, and other than Fox (who seems to be screaming most of his lines to ensure that the sound man will pick up his voice), the acting is credible. Not bad for an independent programmer, and one I'll re-visit again in spite of the snakes crawling over the injured Stevens, the rubber alligator wrestling match and the sudden presence of a scorpion on Cochran's face.
