Stephen Courtleigh

A 1955 independent production directed by R. John Hugh. In the closing days of the Civil War, five Confederate deserters — branded "yellownecks" — flee into the Florida Everglades, hoping to reach the coast and a boat to Cuba. The swamp itself becomes the enemy: snakes, alligators, disease, and Seminole pursuers pick the men off one by one. Shot on location in the Everglades and around Orlando before Disney existed, the production famously filmed its storm sequence during a real hurricane and borrowed its snakes from a local tourist attraction. A grim, unusual survival Western, the film is in the public domain.

Drama · War · Western