Long before Texas had a governor named Ann Richards, there was Patricia Neal playing environmentalist Anne Richards, out to save the California Condor from extinction when their sanctuary was threatened by a fuel company drilling for gas. Tough Neal is bold enough to crash a politician's private gathering where she encounters retired Navy Admiral Edmund Gwenn (another one of his many "cute old man" parts) who takes her under his wing, yet seems to have some private motivations of his own that may or may not be on the up and up. Romance develops between the very determined Neal and powerful Victor Mature, and in another case of the type of plot commonly called "Capra-Corn", the stage is set for two people on opposite sides to come together and do what is right while love blossoms between them.
There's a witty screenplay in this Robert Wise directed romantic comedy with political and environmental themes that makes the film more watchable than it could have been in lesser hands. The problem is that great dialog doesn't always mean a strong story, and here, the balancing act between romance, politics and environmentalism isn't always smooth. Perhaps the most amusing moments come from the bird imitator who is so good at his craft that he fools them as they walk through a park and listen to the various bird sounds, all of a sudden perplexed by one very rare to the area.
There's a witty screenplay in this Robert Wise directed romantic comedy with political and environmental themes that makes the film more watchable than it could have been in lesser hands. The problem is that great dialog doesn't always mean a strong story, and here, the balancing act between romance, politics and environmentalism isn't always smooth. Perhaps the most amusing moments come from the bird imitator who is so good at his craft that he fools them as they walk through a park and listen to the various bird sounds, all of a sudden perplexed by one very rare to the area.