Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Roots of Heaven
by John Huston

The Roots of Heaven is a 1958 adventure film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by John Huston and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck from a screenplay by Romain Gary and Patrick Leigh Fermor based on Romain Gary's 1956 Prix Goncourt winning novel The Roots of Heaven (Les racines du ciel).The film starred Errol Flynn, Juliette Gréco, Trevor Howard, with Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas, Herbert Lom and Gregoire Aslan.Set in French Equatorial Africa, the film tells the story of Morel (Trevor Howard), a crusading environmentalist who sets out to preserve the elephants from extinction as a lasting symbol of freedom for all humanity. He is helped by Minna (Juliette Gréco), a nightclub hostess and Forsythe (Errol Flynn), a disgraced British military officer hoping to redeem himself.