Lure of the Wilderness

Exciting and entertaining
This is an excellent color print from Fox Archives. It is a very unusual and exciting drama with a very good Jeffrey Hunter and Jean Peters, a favorite of mine. Taking place in the Florida Everglades in the early 1900's, the color photography is beautiful and does not contain any of the expected adventure normally associated with the Everglades. Very different and very good.

Decent remake of Renoir's 1941 Swamp Water
Set in the Georgia swamps of the early 1900s, a young man (Jeffrey Hunter) gets lost in the swamps looking for his dog. He's captured by a long time fugitive (Walter Brennan) from the law and his young daughter (Jean Peters) who have been hiding in the swamps for years. Eventually, he feels a bond with the two and promises to find a good lawyer to reopen the fugitive's case. If the story sounds familiar, it's a remake of Jean Renoir's 1941 SWAMP WATER, this time in Technicolor but with Brennan playing the same role he played in the 1941 film. While enjoyable, it's simply not as good as the Renoir film although the screenplay and Jean Negulesco's direction follow the original quite closely. While Technicolor enhances the film's Okefenokee Swamp locations, most of the actors (Hunter in particular) give rather enervated performances though Constance Smith as Hunter's spiteful fiancee is good and Brennan, no surprise, is just fine. There's a decent score by Franz Waxman. With Tom Tully,...

Lure of the wilderness
I saw this movie long time ago, precisely in springtime 1958. when I was 12 years of age and was more than pleased, so I puchased this DVD to renew my childhood memories. I am glad to say that after all these years this movie did not lose any of it's allure (no pun intended) for me. The story is compelling and plausible the cast is excellent, ms Peters is beautiful and late mr. Hunter is handsome and manly enough to be convincig in his role. Late mr. Brennan is, well, good as ever. Last but not least there is the best villain in history of american cinematografy unforgettable mr. Elam. I recommend this movie to all as nice afternoon entertainment. Tehnically, DVD is very good, picture and sound are very good an of course there is old glorious tehnicolor, the best color system that was ever invented.

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