I didn't think I would see a film from director Luis Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou, Land Without Bread, Belle De Jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) that was in the English language, I found most of them in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, including this one I was hoping would be deserving of the placement. Basically Miller (Zachary Scott) is a game warden who lives off the Carolina coast on an isolated island, there only other inhabitant with him is the naive and young Evalyn, better known as Evvie (Key Meersman), who he is very attracted to. Soon enough the two residents are joined by a man on the the run, black musician Traver (Bernie Hamilton) is trying to escape a lynch mob who have falsely accused him of raping a fourteen year old orphan girl, Miller wants to hand him in to turn him in, but Evvie is fond of him and does everything she can to protect him. Another arrival on the island from the mainland is preacher Reverand Fleetwood (Claudio Brook) who has come to rescue Evvie, and when Traver is discovered Miller has the hard decision of whether to let the mob take him or lose the affection of the girl he cares for. Also starring Crahan Denton as Jackson. The acting is alright, this was in fact Scott's penultimate film before dying of a brain tumour at age fifty one and he apparently often played nasty characters, Meersman I agree was a bit amateurish, I will say firstly that some of the story for me was a little hard to follow, maybe because the pace was a bit slow, but I suppose I could recognise moments that would be considered worthwhile for the book, a reasonable drama. Worth watching!
Review of The Young One
