The Roots of Heaven (1958)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Romain Gary (novel)
Romain Gary (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 October 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama

Plot:

In Fort Lamy, French Equitorial Africa, idealist Morel (Trevor Howard)launches a one-man campaign to preserve the African elephant from extinction...

Plot Keywords:

Africa | Elephant | Based On Novel

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Forsythe
Juliette Gréco	...	Minna (as Juliette Greco)
Trevor Howard	...	Morel
Eddie Albert	...	Abe Fields
Orson Welles	...	Cy Sedgewick
Paul Lukas	...	Saint Denis
Herbert Lom	...	Orsini
Grégoire Aslan	...	Habib
André Luguet	...	Governor
Friedrich von Ledebur	...	Peer Qvist (as Friedrich Ledebur)
Edric Connor	...	Waitari
Olivier Hussenot	...	Baron
Pierre Dudan	...	Major Schölscher
Marc Doelnitz	...	De Vries
Francis De Wolff	...	Father Farque (as Francis de Wolff)

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:6 (f)

Filming Locations:

Sarh, Chad

Company:

Darryl F. Zanuck Productions

Trivia:

Terrible heat and sickness took their toll on the cast and crew. The 130 people had 920 sick calls during the filming.

Movie Connections:

Featured in From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995)

Elephants can remember

Based on a novel by Romain Gary (who was Jean Seberg's husband ;she was the star of one of his obscure works "Les Oiseaux Vont Mourir Au Pérou" ),"Roots of Heaven " is generally dismissed ,even by Huston's buffs.And nevertheless....

It was an ecological movie,at a time it was not trendy :as Nicholas Ray ,at about the same time,was filming "wind across the everglades" ,a heartfelt plea for the defense of Florida 's wildlife,Huston did the same for the elephants ,victims of the poachers .THe odd couple,who is one of Huston's recurrent features is present:Morel ,who is championing the elephants cause ,is joined by a prostitute (played by glorious actress/chanteuse Juliette Greco).

"Roots of Heaven" was a definitive improvement on "the Barbarian and the Geisha " and paved a reliable way to works to come such as "the unforgiven" , "the misfits" and the highly superior "Freud" and "Night of the Iguana" .This is an overlong movie,but even if it cannot be ranked among the director's best ,it's worth at least a watch .