Adaptation of Romain Gary's 1956 novel by the author and Patrick Leigh-Fermor has a British environmentalist in French Equatorial Africa fighting the slaughter of elephants by ivory poachers for their tusks. He amusedly shoots a bragging broadcaster (Orson Welles, in a colorful cameo) in the rear-end with buckshot, he has a society shark publicly humiliated...but when the mercenaries get serious, so must he, accumulating his own small army and becoming a guerrilla fighter for the elephants' cause. Something of a surprise coming from director and real-life big game hunter John Huston, who opens his film with lugubrious character introductions that do little for the audience; however, once the preliminaries are out of the way, the handsomely-produced picture becomes an engrossing dramatic story of a (possibly unintended) martyr sharing and expanding his cause while taking it the ultimate distance--death before dishonor. Trevor Howard is excellent in the central role, supporting performances from Juliette Greco as a loving bar hostess, Errol Flynn as a hard-drinking military officer and Eddie Albert as an opportunistic photojournalist are equally good. Huston's sense of humor (droll at times, acerbic at others) is welcomed, while the finale catches one off-guard with its deeply-felt emotion. This appears to have been a rigorous film for all involved to make, but Huston's heart is in it, and he does amazing work. **1/2 from ****