Lure Of The Wilderness (1952)

Set in the Georgia swamps of the early 1900s, a young man (Jeffrey Hunter) gets lost in the swamps looking for his dog. He's captured by a long time fugitive (Walter Brennan) from the law and his young daughter (Jean Peters) who have been hiding in the swamps for years. Eventually, he feels a bond with the two and promises to find a good lawyer to reopen the fugitive's case. If the story sounds familiar, it's a remake of Jean Renoir's 1941 SWAMP WATER, this time in Technicolor but with Brennan playing the same role he played in the 1941 film. While enjoyable, it's simply not as good as the Renoir film although the screenplay and Jean Negulesco's direction follow the original quite closely. While Technicolor enhances the film's Okefenokee Swamp locations, most of the actors (Hunter in particular) give rather enervated performances though Constance Smith as Hunter's spiteful fiancee is good and Brennan, no surprise, is just fine. There's a decent score by Franz Waxman. With Tom Tully, Jack Elam and Will Wright.