Distant Drums,1951 | Gary Cooper, Raoul Walsh | Stefan Classic Films™(SCF) | American Florida Western
Distant Drums is a 1951 American Florida Western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gary Cooper. It is set during the Second Seminole War in the 1840s, with Cooper playing an Army captain who destroys a fort held by the Spanish gunrunners.
After destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety.
The actual location of the fort in the film was the historic Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida, where most of the filming took place.
The enduring legacy of the film is that it contains the earliest known use of the Wilhelm scream sound effect, voiced by cast member Sheb Wooley, and originally used to vocalize a character being bitten by an alligator.
