This is one of those very good technicolor 90 minute or so little gems made in the early 50s that is a mostly forgotten movie and it is sad....a very young Jeffrey Hunter and a very young vivacious Jean Peters star in a tale about a girl (Peters) and her father (Walter Brennan) who have been falsely accused of a murder and had to run from the law and hide in the Georgia swamps for years...waiting and waiting until someone could possibly come to find them and get them a fair trial. Enter Jeffrey Hunter who decides to take a fearful journey into the Okefenoke swamp, a place where neither man nor beast dared venture into to find his lost dog from a hunting trip. The swamp is loaded full of death traps, including plenty of gators, deadly snakes and other assorted beasts.....Hunter finally sets up camp in an area where Peters and Brennan have been hidden for years. A relationship develops between the trio and Hunter believes Brennan's story that he was falsely accused and tries to dig up enough money in fur pelts from various animals to help him fund a defense lawyer. Along the way a wily damsel who supposedly will marry Hunter becomes a jealous, sneaky woman and finds out about Hunter's real motives for continuing to keep venturing into the swamp. A love story ensues as Hunter and Peters fall in love...a very sweet and tender story follows and the real killers who had put Brennan into hiding get their due in a quicksand pit...one brother survives to tell the real truth and in the end of the movie Brennan is acquitted and Peters and Hunter ride off into the sunset. This is one little gem of a movie and should be released to video if Fox had any sense. Hunter and Peters very early in their careers make a handsome couple and the acting is very solid, led by the veteran Walter Brennan, who could handle just about any role. See this film if you can...watch for it on the Fox network on cable.
Review of Lure of the Wilderness
