Playing like a demented cross between Fellini & Lil' Abner, Budd Schulberg's & Nicholas Ray's film features Christopher Plummer in one of his first roles. He plays an ornithologist working in the Florida Everglades and attempting to stop swamp gangster Burl Ives & his goons from pouching the bird population. Ives is ruthless but Plummer proves a worthy adversary. Director Ray and writer Schulberg create quite a potboiler leading up to an all-night moonshine drink-off between Plummer & Ives. The actors are all perfect (among Ives's posse is a young Peter Falk and a make-up-less Emmett Kelley). Curt Conway plays the "prefesser." The art direction is by Richard Sylbert & the stunning cinematography is by Joseph C. Brun, who later shot FLIPPER (also filmed in the Sunshine state).
Review of Wind Across the Everglades
