Never one to choose easy projects, Huston took on Romain Gary’s treatise on the sanctity of wild animals, blending action and philosophy in the telling of a the crusade by an environmentalist (Trevor Howard) to preserve the lives of elephants in French Equatorial Africa. Arguing that the majestic beasts are the world’s last symbols of freedom, he adopts violent tactics to safeguard against their extinction. Shot in Chad amid rampant malaria and blistering temperatures, The Roots of Heaven boasts an all-star cast, including Juliette Gréco as a sympathetic hostess, Orson Welles in a cameo as a broadcaster, and, in his penultimate appearance (ending a run of self-reflexive turns as inebriates), Errol Flynn, quite moving as a debauched officer in search of redemption.