This goes back to 1840 and the Seminole War to spin an action-adventure tale grooved along conventional fiction lines. The stock setup was location-lensed in Florida.
This goes back to 1840 and the Seminole War to spin an action-adventure tale grooved along conventional fiction lines. The stock setup was location-lensed in Florida.
Had the screenplay, from a story by Niven Busch, been as realistic as the locales used, Distant Drums could have counted as a better-than-average entry in the outdoor, pioneer field. Plot situations are conventional and the dialog banal. However, Raoul Walsh’s action-wise direction makes excellent use of the standard framework most of the time to keep the film moving along at an acceptable clip.
The Florida backgrounds lend a lush, fascinating frame for a plot that covers Gary Cooper as an army captain who prefers to live in the swamps with his motherless son. Story is told through the eyes of Richard Webb, naval officer sent to accompany Cooper on a suicidal mission aimed at destroying Seminole munition supplies and thus help shorten the long war.
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Performances are just about what might be expected from the formula plotting; adequate and likeable within the story framework. Femme charms are bountifully supplied by Mari Aldon.
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