Distant Drums

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Audience Member This movie is really quite unique for its time; few movies during this era were actually shot on location. Most of the movie is filmed in St. Augustine and it looks BEAUTIFUL in technicolor! This Warner Bros-made adventure film is packed with intense action scenes which were the first in movie history to include the Wilhelm scream stock recording which was later used in over 400 films including the Star Wars movies. This film includes the only significant lead role in Mari Aldon's very short-lived career; honestly I don't understand why because I thought she was definitely acceptable as the leading lady in this movie. But perhaps the most significantly different feature of this movie is the fact that REAL Seminole Indians were cast in the movie; no "Brown Face"! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Great Florida Western with Gary Cooper! Notable: this is the very first known film to use the Wilhelm Scream sound effect that's been used hundres of times since. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review lanfranco c Old "exotic" western Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member good western with Coop Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A small group of adventurers facing Indians during Seminola war in the Florida Everglades... Mighty adventure booms--This interesting Western and action film makes it of the finest of Raoul Walsh genre entries... Not your usual oater!! Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Authentic Florida locations and a dependably rugged performance from Gary Cooper highlight Raul Walsh's Distant Drums. Although the story is pretty standard; US military must attack and then evade capture of the local Native American tribe, the Florida locations distinguish this movie from a story that would typically be the basis of a Western. The attack on the fort (filmed at St. Augustine) makes rather good use of day-for-night shooting with an explosive finale that would make you think destroyed the fort (it still stands as a national monument; Castillo de San Marcos). Allot of the trekking around can be seen to be Silver Springs and the natural beauty of the park shines through the Technicolor film. Cooper delivers another fine performance, but not really memorable in itself. More likely to catch your attention is the alluring Mari Aldon, an actress whose career never really sparked, although she certainly had the look. Richard Webb as the fresh-faced Navy Lieutenant stands out as a sore spot in the film. His character delivers a useless on-screen narration that adds nothing to the film other then to draw attention to the character. You keep waiting for him to butt heads with Cooper's Quincy Wyatt or vie for the attentions of Aldon's character, but it never happens. Neither does his character do any particularly heroic or even die to give the movie some emotional heft. His character is about as useless as John Boles' Victor in the 1931 Frankenstein. That minor quibble aside, the film is nice diversion to catch on TCM, but not really worth a purchase. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Distant Drums

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