Watch The Roots of Heaven For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

good back-story, and good acting

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Copyright 1958 by Darryl F. Zanuck Productions. Released through 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 15 October 1958. U.S. release: October 1958. U.K. release: 22 February 1959. Australian release: 12 March 1959. Sydney opening at the Regent. 11,350 feet. 125 minutes.SYNOPSIS: In Fort Lamy, French Equatorial Africa, an idealist named Morel (Trevor Howard), launches a one-man crusade to preserve the African elephant from extinction. Generally disappointed with man's civilization, he thinks of the elephants as the last-remaining "roots of heaven". He attempts to effect legislation to stop professional and game ivory hunters from destroying the elephant and at first finds support only from Minna (Juliette Greco), hostess of the town's only night club, who falls in love with him, and from an ex-British major, now a derelict, named Forsythe (Errol Flynn).NOTES: Location scenes filmed in French Equatorial Africa. Interiors at Studios de Boulogne, Paris. Number 7 on the Saturday Review's Ten Best list for 1958.For everything that lies between man and God is in the roots of heaven (Arabian proverb).COMMENT: Strange and exotic places were a natural magnet for CinemaScope. This time the anamorphic lens travels deep into the Cameroons. But unfortunately — as is too often the case — for a few moments' worth of fascinating backgrounds, we are obliged to put up with a dreary and unbelievable story.True, the plot starts promisingly enough, but fails to sustain its momentum — partly because the writing just peters out, partly because the players make such heavy weather of their characters, partly because the direction (from a master like Huston, yet) is so surprisingly indifferent.OTHER VIEWS: A disappointment. — Variety. An interesting but curiously unconvincing picture. — Time.

Good film that had several inconvenient and misfortunes , as the cast and crew suffered temperatures would routinely reach 134 degrees in the day and 95 degrees at night , as the 130 people had 920 sick calls during the shooting . This is an exciting story about Morel's adventures who accompanied by a motley group carry out a real denounce against the massacre of the elephants . Morel lives in Africa and can not stand quiet on this slaughter and he , then , undertakes a dangerous travel on protection of elephants . Morel (Trevor Howard , though James Mason was considered for the role , also William Holden was originally cast with top billing ; however, he later pulled out and was replaced) starts to fight to prohibit this hunt . As he begins , nobody supports him , but thanks to an American Radio newsreader called Sedgwick (Orson Welles , his foe was normally $15,000 but he did it gratis in order to repay Darryl F. Zanuck for helping Welles find the funds to complete Otelo) he becomes a famous person . Some people come to help him , such as : the drunk Forsythe (Errol Flynn , who was then given top billing, even though Howard had the lead role, this was Errol Flynn's last major film before his death the following year others try to use him) , the magazine photographer Abe Fields (Eddie Albert , who developed an almost fatal case of sunstroke) and his lover Minna (Juliette Gréco) , among others . This thought-provoking as well as interesting adventure movie contains a real condemnation of violence and intolerance in which an agreeable character attempts to awake the world's consciousness , being interspersed with a lot of political issues in those times of the French/British colonialism in Africa . It's a story of losers , brave and valiant roles , mixed with revolutionary interests . Nice acting by Trevor Howard as a man committed to nature and especially against indiscriminate ivory trade , determined at whatever cost to avoid the killing of elephants taking place in a French colony . In addition , the strange beauty Juliette Greco , French singer and actress , ¨Protegee¨ of Darryl F. Zanuck, who put her in a number of films in the late 50s-early 60s . Remaining cast is generally quite good , giving fantastic jobs , plenty of great actors who suffered from the heat , malaria and other tropical diseases , as temperatures during filming reached over 130 degrees in the daytime and only got down to 95 at night . As terrible heat and sickness took their toll on the cast and crew . There stand out the followings : Eddie Albert , Paul Lukas , Herbert Lom , Grégoire Aslan , Jacques Marin , and , of course , Orson Welles included . However , Errol Flynn's alcoholism had become a round-the-clock problem, and he was frequently at odds with John Huston . In his autobiography titled ¨My Wicked, Wicked Ways", Errol Flynn wrote that he enjoyed making this film more than any other. Colorful photography in CinemaScope by Oswald Morris is spectacular and insurmountable , it was mostly made on location in Africa over five months , in the Belgian Congo and Tchad in the Northern Cameroons, where the elephants were located . As the cast and crew were in French Equatorial Africa for 6 months making the movie , and on some days it would be a four hour drive to the location and back , as they vowed never to return . It displays an emotive and sensitive musical score by the classic British composer Malcolm Arnold . The motion picture was well directed by John Huston , though he cited this film as an example of how some of the worst shoots can result in the worst films . Its tense filmmaking makes this crackerjack entertainment . The picture was made in a good time in the late 50s , 60s and 70s when Huston reappeared as a director of quality with The misfits (1961) , Freud (1962) , The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) , Fat City, (1972) , The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987) . Rating : 6.5/10 , this is an acceptable John Huston film , despite failing at box office , a model of his kind , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to adventure films

Had it been released just a few years later—say, about the time of 1966's "Born Free"—this film might have achieved icon status in the environmental movement. As it stands, it's best known for the appalling difficulties of its location shoot in what was then French Equatorial Africa, and as the last major film appearance of Errol Flynn—who, although playing a distinctly supporting part, was accidentally catapulted into first-place billing when William Holden dropped out of the lead role of Morel, to be replaced by an equally skilled, but less "box-office-boffo," Trevor Howard.Actually, the book, by the wry ex-diplomat Romain Gary, is a sharp satire of dry, tongue-in-cheek delights, gentle but telling jabs at both the increasingly impotent colonial masters and the wild-eyed, stout-hearted African revolutionaries who have learned all the wrong lessons from their European masters. Some of this attitude survives to inform the film—though not enough.One character who does NOT spring from the pages of the book is on-screen for all of four minutes and forty-five seconds, yet he's a colorful springboard for all that is to come: Rush Limbaugh! Okay, El Rushbo had barely been born in 1958, but Cy Sedgwick, American broadcaster and columnist, as etched with relish by Orson Welles, predicts him with pinpoint accuracy: his girth, his pompous self-righteous, and his confident command of the opinions of "right-thinking Americans." Before Sedgwick's attempted safari, the misanthropic Morel's attempts to preserve the African elephants have made him a laughingstock; Sedgwick's broadcasts transform him into a cause celibre— —and set the stage for the colorful characters who will follow: the haunted "hostess" (Juliette Greco), the "ancient" Danish naturalist (Friedrich von Ledebur), the Baron who has foresworn human speech (Olivier Hussenot), the colonial administrator who has arranged to be reincarnated as a tree (Paul Lukas), the opportunistic Arab (Gregoire Aslan), the would-be "African Napoleon" (Edric Connor), and the alcoholic, disgraced British officer (Errol Flynn, completing the trio of screen drunks that comprised his late-career "comeback" as a character actor.) And one point that all Flynn biographers have missed is that his character is actually a composite of TWO from the book: Johnny Forsythe, the American who broadcast for the Communists during the Korean War—and Colonel Babcock, the "convivial English military man" whose only companion is a Mexican jumping bean named Toto.Forgotten films CAN be rescued from obscurity: Universal just recently (December, 2OO6) released the cult classic The Spiral Road (1962) on DVD. Now, if Fox would only follow suit with The Roots of Heaven—!

Have lately been reading Zolotow's Book about Billy Wilder wherein he relates the following: Wilder encountered by chance Romain Cary in John Huston's office and told him(in so many words) that he didn't think the shooting script for "Roots," was very good. Naturally, Cary was less than thrilled with this remark and riposted with several remarks of his own that were probably less than well thought out. I've always been a fan of Wilder and respected(nay, admired)most of his work; obviously feel the same about Huston and "Roots," so how does one "digest," all this,ie what's the point? No doubt, there's some problems with the script. It does have a on site improvised feel to it-when we see Errol Flynn on screen, the dysfunction's palpable-which shouldn't be all that much of a bad thing. After all, Wilder himself usually started production with most of the script still in his head, so why the problem. Probably because "Roots," is about people searching for something-if the title hadn't been retired with Robert Ruark's novel and film,also about African themes-Something of Value. Morell, one of the few in the film who's entirely clear about what's real and valuable in this life, knows that it's the animals that need protecting and conserving and sometimes not the people. Muddled perhaps? Probably, but clearly at odds with 50's era sentiment. Still, after all this time(64 maybe, since I first saw it NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies)the visual ambience holds up admirably as does Malcolm Arnold's score-as transcendent as anything he's ever written for film. I wish it were available on VHS.