oscar-35 *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.

zardoz-13 Five Confederate deserters plunge into the perilous Everglades swamp in a desperate bid for freedom in freshman writer & director R. John Hugh's "Yellowneck," a gritty but scenic yarn about survival in the wilderness during the American Civil War in 1863. Essentially, nobody wins our sympathy here because they are all deserters on the run. Moreover, the characters are at best sketchy, and the largely unknown cast imparts little in the way of charisma. In other words, you won't be rooting for these poor slobs. Had Hugh written his film about men trying to escape from a prison camp, "Yellowneck" might have been more interesting. As it remains, this costume opus is a dreary, depressing movie that you have to struggle to survive yourself. The only reason that I suffered through this 83-minute epic was that it came as the second feature on the bargain basement Alpha Video DVD that toplined the John Agar/Mike Connors western "Flesh and the Spur." Mind you, "Flesh and the Spur" was no triumph of cinematic artistry, but it was far more rewarding than "Yellowneck." This low-budget Republic potboiler boasts the virtues of not only being lensed on-location in the Everglades but also shot in color. Hugh doesn't rely on either studio sets or back projection. Okay, the Seminole Indian camp looks like it was erected for the purposes of the film."Yellowneck" opens with a painting of dead soldiers either draped on a cannon or lying at its wheels. Heavy-handed narration ensues: "This is the story of five men who were the product of a long, bloody war. Five men who turned their backs on the Confederate cause to run. History has a name for the man who runs in the face of battle: deserter. But to the rank and file of the men in the Confederate lines, he was called Yellowneck. The narrative unfolds with the Colonel (Stephen Courtleigh of "North to Alaska") entering the make-shift camp of four Confederate deserters. Sergeant Todd (Lin McCarthy of "The D.I.") is in nominal charge of Plunkett (Berry Kroeger of "Blood Alley"), the Cockney (Harold Gordon of "East of Eden") and the Kid from Georgia (Bill Mason) who knows how to hunt raccoons for meat. The Colonel presents his credentials for safe passage to a British ship and transport to Cuba. He is searching for a Native American guide to escort him through the 'green hell' of the Everglades. Not only are his hopes dashed almost immediately as his guide shows up just long enough to die at their feet, but Sergeant Todd recognizes the bearded, sword-toting officer as a deserter just like they are. When Todd tries to rally his men around the Colonel, the officer admits that he wants nothing to do with being a commander. He has a moment before he dies near the end when he relives the nightmare that was the Battle of Murfreesboro, fought between December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, in Tennessee, as part of the Stones River Campaign. The Colonel remembers only the failed charge that he led and the men who died in vain. The significance of the battle was that it proved inconclusive and the Union derived more from it than the Confederacy.Basically, "Yellowneck" is a movie about losers. Again, if Hugh had made the men more heroic or at least redeemed them, then this might have been more appetizing to watch. The Colonel is the first to die. Initially, he takes an arrow in the back when they storm a Seminole Indian camp. The second to die is the mercenary Englishman named Cockney who spends his time lusting after Plunkett's gold and smutty French postcards. Cockney dies when he is paralyzed by fear at the sight of a nest of rattlesnakes. To his credit, Hugh foreshadows Cockney's demise early when Plunkett taunts him with a harmless snake. The three remaining Confederates successfully cross an alligator infested river on a log, but Plunkett goes mad when he realizes that he has lost his gold. He tries to go back for it and ends up being gator bait. The most sympathetic of the quintet is Sergeant Todd who dies an ignominious death in a quicksand pit. Predictably, the one who survives is the simple-minded Kid who reaches the shore. Indeed, his future doesn't look much better. Although Hugh wrote the dialogue and Nat Linden penned the screenplay, neither uses the story as a soapbox for either anti-war sentiments or anti-Confederate commentary. Finally, aside from the French post cards which are never shown, "Yellowneck" features no women.

MisterChandu 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!)

telegonus This modestly budgeted oddity from the mid-fifties is as good an example as I can think of of how to make something out of nothing. Set in the waning days of the Civil War, Yellowneck follows several Confederate army deserters in their flight through the Florida Everglades. The actors are all good and the predicament these characters are in is dramatized with a fair amount of realism. Poisonous snakes, insects and alligators abound, as these unfortunate men have gone from the hell of the Civil War into the frying pan of the swamp. They squabble amongst one another a good deal, but their biggest enemy is nature itself, which seems to be conspiring against them at every turn. One comes to like some of these men very much, and despise others. The pathetic nature of their plight is always apparent, and we cannot help but feel for them as they slog through the mud, their hopes diminishing with each passing day. A fine. psychologically provocative piece of film-making, in tone and sensibility, a sort of cross between Ambrose Bierce and Albert Camus.