Distant Drums Reviews

During the Seminole Indian War in 1840, a US Army captain, Quincy Wyatt (Gary Cooper), leads a military expedition against a ring of gun runners. He is surrounded by hordes of hostile Seminoles, who drive Wyatt and his men ever deeper into the Everglades, taking love interest Judy Beckett (Mari Aldon) with them. Capt. Wyatt is stoic and heroic as he leads his men to the supposed safety of his own island, and at the end of the trail fights an underwater knife duel with Seminole chief Oscala (Larry Carper), just barely surviving. His bedraggled soldiers, or what's left of them, are saved at the last moment by US troops, who drive off the Indians. Director Raoul Walsh provides plenty of quick-paced thrills in this remake of his own WW II film OBJECTIVE BURMA, which starred Errol Flynn. Max Steiner's score is as lush as the Everglades that almost swallow up Cooper and company.