O Último dos Moicanos

Although I am a committed movie buff of many decades experience now, I had somehow never seen this famous old adventure flick until I acquired the excellent Hen's Tooth DVD of it for Christmas.

It proved to be a delightful surprise and far better than I was expecting. As an independent production, it may have lacked the big budget production values of a Warner or MGM film, but it still managed to look impressive, with some clever use of glass shots, hanging miniatures and other film tricks.

It is only 92 minutes long yet packs an astonishing amount of incident for its length, all helped along by a throbbing music score that relies heavily on judicious borrowings from Max Steiner's famous score for KING KONG, which surprisingly fits the action rather well.

An excellent cast of 1930s favourites is led by a young Randolph Scott who makes a terrific Hawkeye and clearly enjoys himself in the role.

1936 was an interesting year for him. Not yet typecast in "oaters", he made, in rapid succession, a big musical (Follow the Fleet with Astaire and Rogers) a sexy comedy (Go West Young Man with Mae West)and this, which was a logical follow-up to the previous year's SHE. He was a much better actor and more versatile than he is usually given credit for and in this role, he may well have found his career best.

The DVD offers what is probably the best surviving print of this old movie and it is rather variable in quality, though it does get better after the 3rd reel. I would love to have seen a restored print but I am guessing this would be impossible now unless an original nitrate can be found.

George B. Seitz directs the whole show with flair and keeps things moving at a considerable pace. The film easily bears comparison to better known films in the genre, such as BEAU GESTE, GUNGA DIN and THE FOUR FEATHERS.

In short, it's a grand old fashioned adventure film, the kind Hollywood turned out with ease and great skill and long before the inflated budgets, running times and CGi of today.

The kids back in 1936 must have been on the edge of their seats....I know I was, in 2017!

Colonel Munro's (Hugh Buckler) 2 daughters, Alice (Binnie Barnes) and Cora (Heather Angel) are led to the fort where their father is fighting for the British against the French. During the journey, a Huron Indian scout, Magua (Bruce Cabot) leads Alice, Cora and Major Heyward (Henry Wilcoxon) through a short cut but it is a trap. An American frontiersman, Hawkeye (Randolph Scott) and two Mohican Indians, Chingachgook (Robert Barrat) and Uncas (Phillip Reed) rescue the party and deliver them safely to Colonel Munro. However, the girls are then captured and taken to the Huron tribe and it is up to Hawkeye, the Major and the two Mohicans to rescue them from their fates as determined by the Huron leader.

I have seen the recent re-make of this film and I wanted to like this film better. Unfortunately, I didn't. It's still a good film - it's just not as engrossing. The relationships between the characters are not as deeply portrayed and poignant moments are not dwelt upon to give the film as much depth as occurs in the re-make, eg, the love between Uncas and Cora. The character of Magua is also far more scary in the re-make although I prefer Randolph Scott's "Hawkeye" to the extremely wooden Daniel Day Lewis. Speaking of wooden, the two Mohicans are exactly that. Their "me Tarzan, you Jane" style of dialogue is laughably bad and reminiscent of Daniel Day Lewis's attempts in the re-make.

A couple of other moments weren't as good as the re-make. In that film, the story ends with the line "......Last of the Mohicans" - a far more poignant ending to the film.

There are good moments, eg, the canoe chase and the sparring between the Major and Hawkeye, and it's still an engaging film. But the re-make is better on many levels, including, scenery, music, and romantic development

Arguably the best version of the Cooper Classic. Great production values, a fine cast and fast paced direction move this tale of Colonial America along to a breath-taking climax. This one's been done many times, but never done better than this.

I will admit that I knew James Fenimore Cooper wrote the classic book, but I never read it. And I knew and loved the excitement of the 1992 film version starring Daniel-Day Lewis, but didn't know that it did not follow the book. And I knew about the Statler Bros song "Whatever happened to Randolph Scott?", but I had never seen one of his movies.

So I decided to watch this version starring Randolph Scott in B/W and of course not as much special effects as today's movies. The acting is really quite well, except for the fake dying when actors are shot.

This version is equally exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. And if you, like me, liked the 1992 version, you will like this knowing an idea of the story, but with a different ending.

Made right after the Full Implementation of the Hays Code that Limited the Portraying of Certain types of Violence and Behavior, this Film shows Signs of Capitulation and Adherence but not Complete Surrender.

There is Interracial Love making, Scalping, Torture, and other Displays of Nastiness that give this Movie a Real Feel for the Frontier Days and the Conflicts of Cultures and Countries.

Quite Impressive, the Film Holds Up really well and Modern Audiences will be Surprised that this Early Hollywood effort is a Testament at how Good they could be at their Craft when everything was Clicking. It has very Little that is Dated or Embarrassing Today. Especially the Reverence and Tolerance given All Points of View from All Points of View.

A good companion piece to the Michael Mann remake, this is a film that could be offered as one of the best of the early "period" films of the slowly evolving studio movie machine that would peak just a few years later.