The Roots of Heaven

In Fort Lamy, French Equitorial Africa, idealist Morel launches a one-man campaign to preserve the African elephant from extinction, which he sees as the last remaining "roots of Heaven." At first, he finds only support from Minna, hostess of the town's only night club, who is in love with him, and a derelict ex-British Army Major, Forsythe. His crusade gains momentum and he is soon surrounded by an odd assortment of characters: Cy Sedgewick, an American TV commentator who becomes impressed and rallies world-wide support; a U.S. photographer, Abe Fields, who is sent to do a picture story on Morel and stays on to follow his ideals; Saint Denis, a government aide ordered to stop Morel; Orsini, a professional ivory hunter whose vested interests aren't the same as Morel's; and Waitari, leader of a Pan-African movement who follows Morel only for the personal good it will do his own campaign.

I just wonder how much acting Errol Flynn or Orson Welles actually had to do in this really disappointing and meandering yarn - they both appear as disinterested as the other. Trevor Howard doesn't fare much better as the early ecologist "Morel" who is determined to put a stop to elephant hunting. That's quite a task given he is slap bang amidst French Equatorial Africa where most of the community is employed in this "sport" and most of the establishment takes part. More by luck than judgement, his campaign attracts the attention of "Sedgewick" (Welles) and soon photographer Eddie Albert ("Abe") in on site to capture the images and tell the world the story. What now ensues is a battle with the hunters now having something entirely new to hunt. The story isn't half bad, but the execution is rally poor. Flynn, playing a dissolute former British officer is nowhere near his best form, Welles features but sparingly and the rest of this is looks little better than a glorified episode of "Daktari" (without "Clarence"). It is way, way, too long with production standards that are mediocre at best. It's sad to see such an high profile ensemble cast going to waste like this, but this is really pretty dull and forgettable.