Synopsis
While sailing along the Georgia coast, a widower (Frank Mayo) not quite over the untimely death of his wife anchors off a small inlet in search of fresh water. There he finds a dilapidated mansion, a beautiful Southern belle (Virginia Valli), her terror-stricken grandfather (Nigel de Brulier) and a homicidal maniac (Charles A. Post) who won't let anyone leave the mainland alive. Fear and desires run deep in this steamy melodrama from director King Vidor, who shot on actual Florida locations to capture the humidified atmosphere of the source novel. Vidor, whose career began in 1913, went on to make the classics The Big Parade, The Crowd, Hallelujah, Duel in the Sun and The Fountainhead. When he finally retired in 1980, he entered the record books as the longest working director in film history.