“According to Peter Bogdanovich Driftwood is an affectionate and touching little fable about an orphan girl and her effect on several people in a small town - ‘sensitively directed.' According to Dwan himself, ‘what intrigued me after we got going was the ability of the child we found - little Natalie Wood. She had a real talent for acting, an ability to characterise and interpret, and that was a pleasure.' However much this may be true, dramatically speaking, visually speaking the major interest today lies in Dwan's first collaboration with master Noir cameraman John Alton of whom he said later: ‘If I found a cameraman I liked, I kept asking for him. Because they're awfully important. I finally got a hold of John Alton at one of the studios. He was very pompous and aristocratic, but he turned out to be a great photographer. And that's what you want. You need that. It's half the game.'”