Wind Across the Everglades

Florida at the beginning of the twentieth century. Because feathers are fashionable on hats, hunters are killing the birds of the swamp in great numbers. A game warden arrives from the city, charged with enforcing the new conservation laws. Against him stands a man called Cottonmouth and his gang, who live by their own rules inside the swamp. The two of them try to understand each other. Nicholas Ray's film was finished after Ray was removed before shooting ended; the remaining scenes were shot by Budd Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay, and he supervised the editing as well. Burl Ives plays Cottonmouth and Christopher Plummer the warden. The story was drawn from a real game warden killed in the swamp in 1905. The footage shot in the Everglades is what the film is remembered for now.