Really Surprised!

Awesome Movie

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Copyright 1957 by Regalscope Pictures. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: June 1957. U.K. release: September 1957. Australian release: around November 1957 in a version cut to 66 minutes. 6,620 feet. 74 minutes.SYNOPSIS: The arrival of gangster James Lister (Willard Parker) in the swamp town of Beeker's Landing, Florida, begins this tense story of greed. Lister hires Simon Lewt (Marshall Thompson), who lives in a cabin near the swamp as a guide, to take him into the marshy terrain. He carries a heavy suitcase and makes Simon wait while he travels into the interior alone. The next day Simon reads that Lister has been killed by a fellow gangster and that the suitcase contained $290,000. Anxious to take his girl, Evie Dee (Joan Lora), away from the swamp, Simon makes up his mind to find the money.COMMENT: Although Fox publicity claims producer "Sam Hersh took his company to Florida for the authentic background to give the picture excellent pictorial quality", there is little evidence of this on the screen. True the plot — at least in its short version — is moderately suspenseful, even despite the heavy-handed efforts of the second- string principals and Cornfield's disappointingly routine direction. But the best thing about the movie is its title. A pity some more of that lure wasn't transferred to the theater screen.

Director Cornfield helmed the heist sleeper Plunder Road (1957) shortly after directing this flick. Following that later film, he was hailed by some critics as a Kubrick in-the-making. This film, however, shows little of the later panache of Plunder. It's a decent enough thriller, seemingly filmed entirely in Florida's everglades, which does lend dramatic background. Seems Simon (Thompson) rents skiffs for swamp excursions. As a result he gets mixed up with bank robbers who hide their loot in the big muddy he takes them to. And, oh yes, there's a vampy blonde (Vohs) added for eye candy.Anyway, I hope they paid Thompson double since I believe he's in every shot, not surprising since the cast is very small. He does a good job too. Catch his many nuanced reactions to events unfolding around him. But the real scene-stealer is, of course, wall-eyed Jack Elam who mugs it up Elam-style. There's been nobody like him before or since, and here he's in fine fettle. There're also some good production touches. For example, Simon wears the same sweat stained shirt throughout. In fact, he wears the same pants too, befitting a guy in the boondocks who's just scrimping by.No, this little oddity is nothing to write home about. The main draw remains wondering who's a gang member and who isn't. Action may be slow to build, but is still not without interest. Too bad director Cornfield never managed to live up to his early promise.

SPOILER!! Good movie. Especially the end where the girl goes under the quicksand, and pays for her cruel misgivings with her very life! Marshall Thompson is chased by bad girl Cora Payne, when she finds herself in quicksand after shooting him several times. She begs for help, then goes under the quicksand. She deserves her reward!