Yellowneck (1955)

Best movie of this year hands down!

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Admirable film.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

An interesting plot premise is killed with poor direction and a lot of overacting with Yellowneck. There's also a distinct lack of characters who you really root for to get out of the Everglades.Republic released this film in 1955 about five men who are Confederate Army deserters and not some of the greatest specimens of manhood you'll ever want to encounter. Lin McCarthy, Billl Mason, Harold Gordon, and Berry Kroeger are the deserters and from some of the names you know that by the type of roles they've played. Later on they're joined by Stephen Courtleigh, a colonel who deserted the Star And Bars. He's got pretensions, but deep down he's no better than the other four.For the one and there is only one who makes it there is then the minor problem of crossing 90 miles of ocean to Cuba. Still it is an achievement to have survived the Everglades and all that inhabit it.If you care to watch you can find out which one survives.

*Spoiler/plot- 1955, Five war weary AWOL Confederate soldiers attempt to escape to Cuba by the swamps of Florida during the Civil War area.*Special Stars- Lin McCarthy.*Theme- Luck has a funny irony all on it's own.*Trivia/location/goofs- This film was shot in Florida swamps and coastal area. Also scenes were taken during a hurricane for the story line involving high winds and rain of this well known area for these storms.*Emotion- An enjoyable drama and a well acted film of men under pressure. Nice plot twists make this a watchable 'secret' pleasure for Western TV star fans.

This is a strange little film about five confederate deserters trying to make their way through the Everglades to escape capture. They find the wilderness to be a less merciful enemy than the union, as they battle hurricanes, snakes, Senecas, quicksand, and each other. Essentially, this is a raw, real - but not realistic, struggle for survival pitting men who have been branded cowards against nature and other men.Although the film is over-acted, over-dramatized and over-long, it made a lasting impression on me as an adolescent. I first saw Yellowneck when I was between 9 and 12 years old. When I watched it last night, I remembered having seen it then about a quarter of the way through the film. There are aspects of this film which, at a very young age, I found frightening. As an adult who frequently works in environments such as the one depicted in the film, I can only reflect on my own (and the writer's) ignorant fearfulness today.The script has too many soliloquies and generally over-dramatizes most of the story. The acting is OK, but the script forces almost all of the cast members to go overboard frequently. Lin McCarthy and Bill Mason both turn in solid performances. The directing, cinematography and editing are all good, but the film could have been 10-15 minutes shorter and just as good. As much as I appreciate character development, a few of the soliloquies and conversation scenes might have improved the film had they been left out.Weakly recommended.

I have not seen this one since the 1960's but we would re-enact it when we played civil war. If I remember correctly these Confederates had been running a prison camp (3/07 I remembered wrong! It was the Seminole Village scene in the middle of the movie) and now (upon the near defeat of the south) were escaping to Cuba. (I guess as deserters according to the other comments.) In order to do so they have to pass thru the Everglade swamps where (like Heart of Darkness) things become more dangerous and evil as they go. Indians, alligators, snakes all finish off (except for one to tell the tale of course) the members of the party one by one. The snake pit was nice cause I did not like the guy who died in it.The scene I most remember is the quicksand scene where the Sergeant sinks and dies leaving the kid alone to finish the trek to Cuba. The rest of the troop dies in different ways. The film finishes with the kid, the one good guy in the film, walking out of the Jungle onto a beach where he looks across the sea in the direction of his destination, Cuba.This was an amusement park of horror. It is too bad that Arnold and Sly are too old now as I think it would make a good film to remake. Time is passing however and the casting of this thing would be a challenge. The film can be downloaded from eztakes.com but it is available on DVD if you search for it.It is really very good and the guy playing the officer has a great death scene!)