Swamp Fire
Cast & Crew
William H. Pine
Johnny Weissmuller
Virginia Grey
Buster Crabbe
Carol Thurston
Pedro De Cordoba
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Just after World War II, bar pilot Johnny Duval returns home to the bayous of the delta country of Louisiana after serving in the Coast Guard. Johnny has unsteady nerves after being responsible for a wartime shipwreck in which many men's lives were lost. While Johnny was away, a Cajun named Mike Kalavich courted his sweetheart, Toni Rousseau. On his way up the Mississippi River to Cypress Point, Johnny meets Janet Hilton, a wealthy society girl, who is immediately impressed with his rugged manliness. Johnny's old captain, Pierre Moise, is eager to rehire Johnny, who used to be his top bar pilot, but Johnny refuses to accept the job. A pilot friend of Johnny fakes an illness in order to get him to pilot Janet's father's yacht in the fog. Johnny successfully steers the boat to safety, and his commission as lieutenant in the Coast Guard Reserve is restored. At a town dance, Mike picks a fight with Johnny, but he refuses to fight back. Toni willingly fights Janet, however, who now rivals Toni for Johnny's affections. The night before Johnny and Toni are to marry, he is called to rescue a ship in the fog and rams into a boat, killing Toni's brother Tim. After the funeral, Johnny turns to drink and is injured in a traffic accident. He lies unidentified for weeks in a charity hospital; finally, Janet has him moved to her house on Delta Island to take care of him. When Toni and Captain Moise visit the Hiltons, she upbraids them for forcing Johnny to be a bar pilot and refuses to let them see him. After Johnny recovers, Janet gets him a job with Hilton, who now owns the formerly free lands of the bayous where the locals hunt, fish and trap for their livelihood. Mike, who is a trapper, disdainfully disregards Hilton's posted warning signs. One day, Johnny and Janet catch Toni illegally hunting and accidentally hit her canoe with their motorboat. Toni is thrown from her boat, and Johnny wrestles an alligator to save her. Later, on Delta Island, Janet and Johnny hear a shot, and Johnny discovers that Mike and his friend Alex were trying to run a trap and were fired upon. Alex accuses Johnny of complicity with the Hiltons in breaking the tradition of bayou rights and tells him that every effort Toni made to see him was thwarted by Janet. Johnny confronts Janet, and she admits she intercepted Toni's letters and calls. After unsuccessfully trying to incite a riot among the trappers, Mike starts a swamp fire, and Toni races to the island to warn Johnny. As the fire spreads, Johnny and Toni call for each other, but when they finally embrace, Mike shoots Toni. Johnny knocks out Mike then rescues him and Toni from the engulfing flames. Later, Toni recovers and Johnny pilots a tanker for Captain Moise.
Director
William H. Pine
Cast
Johnny Weissmuller
Virginia Grey
Buster Crabbe
Carol Thurston
Pedro De Cordoba
Marcelle Corday
William Edmunds
Edwin Maxwell
Pierre Watkin
Charles Gordon
Frank Fenton
"ponchartrain Billy," An Alligator
Crew
Henry Adams
Howard A. Anderson
Louis Diage
Geoffrey Homes
Max Hutchinson
Fred Jackman Jr.
Harold Knox
L. B. Merman
Walter Oberst
William H. Pine
Rudy Schrager
Ray Smallwood
Howard Smith
F. Paul Sylos
William C. Thomas
Philip G. Wisdom
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
A written foreword to the film states: "Here in the delta country of Louisiana where the Mississippi merges with the Gulf, at Pilot Town ninety river miles below New Orleans lives a courageous and colorful group of men, the associated bar pilots....Always members of the Coast Guard Reserve, the bar pilots enlisted for active duty during the war...." This film marked former Olympic swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller's first starring role in thirteen years in which he did not portray "Tarzan." The picture's opening credits list his character's name as "Johnny Duval," while the foreword spells the name "Duvalle." According to the film's pressbook, the alligator that Weissmuller wrestles in the film, "Ponchartrain Billy," was brought to Hollywood in 1909 from Lake Ponchartrain near New Orleans and had previously appeared in many films. Portions of the film were shot on location in New Orleans, LA.
