Distant Drums

WILHELM SCREAM: This film contains the first known instance of "The Wilhelm Scream" (a sound effect of a man screaming, since used in over 400 other movies, at least 433). different variations of the sound effect are heard throughout the movie, heard two or three times during a fortress battle sequence when two soldiers are killed and let out Wilhelms. it's again during a scene in which the soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades, one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator and lets out a Wilhelm. six takes of this scream were recorded originally for the alligator scene by Sheb Wooley (actor of Private Jessup), the fifth take was used for the alligator scene though the fourth take became most popular. The scream for that character was recorded later. Six short pained screams were recorded in a single take, which was slated "man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams." The fifth scream was used for the soldier - but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film when three Indians are shot, one after another, during a raid on a fort. Although the "signature" or "classic" screams, takes 4 through 6 on the original recording, are the most recognizable, all of the screams are referred to as "Wilhelm" by those in the sound community. Ben Burtt, sound effects designer on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), named it "Wilhelm" after the character that let out the scream in The Charge at Feather River (1953). He discovered a file at Warner Bros. for this movie, which contained paperwork that was left over from the picture editor after the film was completed. One of the papers was a short list of names of actors who were scheduled to come in to perform various lines of dialogue for miscellaneous roles in the movie. After reviewing the names and even listening to their voices, one person seemed to be the most likely suspect: Sheb Wooley who had played the uncredited role of Private Jessup in "Distant Drums", and was one of the few actors assembled for the recording of additional vocal elements for the film. It is very likely he was asked on the spot to perform other things for the film, including the screams for a man being bitten by an alligator.

Except for Larry Chance, the actors playing Seminole Indian warriors were in fact real Seminoles.

Director Raoul Walsh hired two local snake experts to clear rattlers and water moccasins out of the swamp areas to be used for shooting each day. "The swampmen were not averse to the job," Walsh wrote. "They got paid by the studio, and in addition any snake they killed or captured became their property. They put the live ones in sacks and took them to the Fish and Game laboratory where their venom was extracted. Then the snakes were killed at a cannery and turned into steaks for sale as a Florida delicacy. The hunters never had it so good."

Filming in the Everglades posed many dangers for the film unit. Gary James Cooper sank to his waist in quicksand one day before he could be freed, and cameraman Sid Hickox, "swore that he almost set up on an alligator." According to the director, Cooper also complained that he had "donated a gallon of his best blood to the mosquitoes and leeches."

The 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.