User reviews

This hokum film set during pre-Revolutionary War deals with a painter named Jonathan Adams (Scott Brady), tangling with diverse dames as he paints wonderful outdoor scenes and beautiful women . He is away from Boston so long that his fiancée , Cynthia Stanhope (Lori Nelson), along with her Aunt Agatha (Barbara Allen), newly arrive from the east to Fort Alden ( 1778, Otsego County, Cherry Valley, the Fort existed and was destroyed in French and Indian War) seeking him . Cynthia finds him juggling the gorgeous Greta Jones (Allison Hayes), a shopkeeper's (Rhys Williams) daughter, as a model. Mohawk Chief Kowanen (Ted De Corsia) holds his tribe in check but rebel warrior Rokhawah (Neville Brand) wishes into raiding the fort for guns . Onida, Kowanen's daughter (Rita Gam), agrees to let the raiders into the fort after sundown and finds herself caught in Adams' hut after the attackers getaway . Later on , the artist Adams and Onida fall in love but he is taken prisoner . Meanwhile , Butler (John Hoyt), an Indian hater , is seeking to provoke a war so that he might get rule of the whole Mohawk valley . Then he murders Kowanen's son, Keoga, and this causes the chief into declaring war against white men . After that, the courageous Adams trying to thwart Iroquois uprising .

This peculiar B frontier western in 1950-style contains adventure , intrigue , fights and an inter-racial love story . It's a quickie with lack luster and low budget but it manages to be at least an enjoyable adventures movie because contains action, sensational outdoors and outlandish thrills situations abound . The story is neither realistic nor ambitious, but sympathetic with good scenarios, costumes and landscapes . It's made on the ideas and leftover from previous movie the very superior ¨Drums along the Mohawk¨ by John Ford with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert . The film displays a haunting and rich cinematography capturing flavor of colonial life by Karl Struss, Neumann's usual . The motion picture produced by Edward Alperson is finely directed by Kurt Neumann (The fly, Cronos, She-Devil, Tarzan and the leopard woman). This vigorous picture with some humor unintentionally interwoven obtained limited successful but results to be enough agreeable. It's a good stuff for young people and exotic adventures lovers who enjoy enormously with the extraordinary dangers on the luxurious landscapes and marvelous Technicolor photography.

"Mohawk" is a 1956 color film starring some darn good-looking young people, beautiful scenery, and a different point of view towards Indians. Scott Brady is an artist living in a fort that exists in peace with the Mohawk Indians, except for one rabble-rouser (John Hoyt) who grew up in the area and wants the Indians out. The script is interesting for the period, because the Brady character is constantly reminding people that the white man took land from the Indians.

The cast is populated with some gorgeous starlets: Lori Nelson, Allison Hayes, and Rita Gam. Scott Brady, who ended up becoming a character actor, actually started out as a poor man's Robert Wagner and is an attractive lead here.

Mae Clarke of the Cagney grapefruit is the Indian Chief's wife. All of the Indians have shaved chests. The most familiar actor to most will be Neville Brand as one of the Indians.

Okay, and the guys will love it.

Kurt Neumann gets screen credit for directing Mohawk, but I'd estimate that about one third of the film was shot by John Ford. Not that Pappy was around at all while this abysmal excuse for a B eastern/western was made, mind you. A little more than fifteen years earlier, he had directed a film on the same subject, the majestic Drums Along the Mohawk, for 20th Century Fox, with Henry Fonda in the lead. Somehow, some way, the producers of Mohawk got the rights to use the magnificent action scenes - attack on a frontier fort, a lone man running through the woods to get reinforcements while pursued by three Indians - within the context of their cheapo-cheapo production, which essentially is to westerns what Robot Monster is to sci-fi: As awful as it is, if you catch it in the right mood, you may find it to be so bad that it's entertaining. The plot, totally anachronistic as compared to Ford's ultra-authenticity, has Scott Brady (later Shotgun Slade on TV) as a loverboy (though a solid actor, he wasn't cut out for such a part). He's a painter who talks gorgeous Hollywood starlets (er . . . make them frontier lasses) into taking off most of their clothes for one of his portraits. Lori Nelson (pert blonde), Allison Hayes (star of The Fifty Foot Woman - the original, that is), and Rita Gam (as a Mohawk babe) all fall for him, and his character has more in common with Hugh Hefner than Henry Fonda in Ford's film. The point is, most of Mohawk was shot on a studio set in about three days, with a frontier fort that is mostly a big painting the actors stand in front of. Then someone screams something on the order of "The Mohawks are coming!" and, whoooosh - we cut to stock footage from Ford's film that is on a grand scale. The entire chase of Fonda is included, only when it comes time for a close-up, there is Brady's face instead of Hank's. It's that kind of a movie. Remember, you were warned.

Let me just say that I did not expect much from this film when I popped it into the DVD player. It is on a 4 movie set from Platinum Great Westerns Vol 8. that I paid only $4.00. Well, they must of remastered this one, quality is excellent. Almost looks like a 3D color movie at times. The flick itself...pretty good not a western at all though. Set out east in 1790 with the blue coats and settlers invading upon the Indian's habitat. Commissioned Boston artist Scott Brady frolicking with 3 beautiful women, fiancee Lori Nelson, bar maid Alison Hayes, and Indian princess Rita Gamm. Sinister demented land owner John Hoyt plays the white skins against the red skins so both wipe each other out and the valley will be all his. Crazed Mohawk Neville Brand doing frenzied war dances, only makes matters worse. Ends with exciting attack on the fort, bad guy gets his in spades, and Brady picking the right gal for marriage. The movie is no deep drama by any means, but it moves very quickly, nice to look at in a 1950's avante garde way, some (not all) of the outdoor sets are really on a studio sound stage so there are paintings as backdrops that are VERY obvious. Fun movie though to enjoy for what it is.

That's so you can tell the two tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy apart in this colonial travesty. And that line of explanation is actually in the film Mohawk.

The Tuscaroras are currently house guests of the Mohawks having moved up from the south do to white settlement on their hunting grounds. They've got an understandable attitude as expressed by their chief Neville Brand who wants war with the whites and the Mohawks as allies. But the Mohawk Chief Ted DeCorsia hasn't had any problems with them and he's reluctant to join.

But DeCorsia might not have a choice because a man named Butler played by John Hoyt wants to start a nice little war. It seems as though his family once was the only white folks in the whole Mohawk Valley and he wants it that way again. He stirs up the Indians by first giving them weapons and then shooting Tommy Cook who is DeCorsia's son. That way when everybody kills everybody off, this dill-weed will have the whole valley to himself once again.

Our hero in this piece is a painter, Scott Brady who is romancing three different women of differing hair color, probably deliberate cast that way by the producer. There's his blond fiancé from Boston Lori Nelson, the blacksmith Rhys Williams's daughter Allison Hayes, and a fiery brunette Indian princess Rita Gam. If you care to see the film, you'll find out who he winds up with.

By the way John Hoyt's character is not in any way the same as Walter Butler who was a Tory in the American Revolution and responsible for leading the Indians in the famous Cherry Valley Massacre. He was one of the jury in The Devil and Daniel Webster and he's also portrayed in D.W. Griffith's film, Revolution by Lionel Barrymore. I thought when I heard Hoyt's name in the film that I would see some of that story in this film, but it was a tease.

The only thing really to recommend Mohawk is a nicely staged battle scene when the Indians attack the stockade. The same one used by John Ford for Drums Along the Mohawk, an infinitely better film.

The cast can barely keep straight faces throughout this film. When Mohawk wrapped they should have burned the film and roasted a turkey over it in the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

The results he achieved recycling scenes from 'Drums Along the Mohawk' obviously satisfied director Kurt Neumann since he repeated the exercise four years later with footage from 'King Solomon's Mines' in a film called 'Watusi!'. The result is enjoyable rough & tumble hokum with Scott Brady painting incredibly advanced work for the late 1780s (I wonder what become of them after filming?) and obvious native American types Ted De Corsia and Neville Brand (the former wearing what looks like a flower pot on his head) on the warpath. Heading a strong female contingent are brittle blonde Lori Nelson, sultry redhead Allison Hayes, acidulous maiden aunt Vera Vague and mother & daughter squaws Mae Clarke and Rita Gam; the latter tall and athletic in pigtails and a trouser suit.

"Jonathan Adams" (Scott Brady) is a young man from Boston who has his heart set on painting. But rather than paint portraits in that city he has chosen to live in the American wilderness near a fort in the Mohawk Valley of New York. Because of his youth and charm he has attracted the attention of the lovely barmaid by the name of "Greta Jones" (Allison Hayes) who has willingly agreed to pose for him as a model. However, things begin to get a bit difficult for him when his fiancé named "Cynthia Stanhope" (Lori Nelson) arrives unexpectedly from Boston. Likewise, his chance encounter with an Iroquois maiden by the name of "Onida" (Rita Gam) really complicates things. Now rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that, all things considered, this turned out to be a decent grade-B western. Admittedly, there were some parts which were a bit corny and it didn't have an all-star cast or a superior script. But I enjoyed it and the three actresses just mentioned certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way. Accordingly, I rate it as about average.

Forget all the nasty things that reviewers have said about MOHAWK, an unpretentious, thoroughly enjoyable, ahead-of-its-time 1956 Western starring handsome Scott Brady (was the word "hunk" in use as early as the 1950s?) as an artist from Boston commissioned to do a series of frontier paintings to present the Iroquois Indians in a favorable light. Since Brady usually does these paintings with his shirt off, small wonder he attracts the amorous attentions of a trio of gorgeous gals: brunette Indian maiden Rita Gam, auburn-haired sexpot Allison Hayes and blonde beauty Lori Nelson (try and guess which one he winds up marrying; a nice surprise!). For about an hour, the romantic cavorting of Brady and his beauties take the forefront (the Breen office must have been napping during a lakeside interlude and make-out session with Brady & Gam wearing as little as possible). Then the final 20 minutes get down to the inevitable cowboys vs. Indians clash, but since the screenplay is refreshingly original enough to make a distinction between the good and bad white men, and the savage vs. civilized Indians, you'll probably care about who dies and who survives. And rather than try to stage the climactic uprising within the limits of its modest budget, MOHAWK smoothly incorporates some spectacular footage from John Ford's 1939 extravaganza "Drums Along the Mohawk" (which accounts, I imagine, for why this independently-produced movie was released by 20th Century-Fox). So what's not to like? Slick direction, a sensible and often good-humored screenplay, a terrific supporting cast, and beautiful color photography contribute to making this good-natured escapism a lot more enjoyable than many of its big-budget, boring CinemaScope counterparts from the same era. A hearty, sincere, belated thanks to everyone involved with MOHAWK. They appear to be having a very good time, and so should you, the viewer.

I remember as a teenager passing a theater poster of a scantily clad Rita Gam and wishing I had the money to go in. I know now what I didn't then-- it was my lucky day. Even a longer look at that shapely leg wouldn't have made up for all the bad acting (deCorsia's wooden Indian should be planted in front of a cigar store), the stupefied poetic dialogue ("You shine like a moon above the stars,"), the ridiculous Hollywood casting (malt-shop teen Tommy Cook as Indian warrior), and the ultra-cheap production values (backgrounds painted by art class dropouts). Heck, they couldn't even stage minimal outdoor battle scenes, using stock shots from 1939's Drums Along the Mohawk instead. Note too, how artificially the Indians emerge from the forest as though they're expecting a parade to pass by. At least the producers knew enough to play up the sex angle with a bevy of Indian maidens apparently recruited from a Las Vegas stage show. I'm just sorry that director Kurt Neumann's name is attached to this misfire. He did manage a number of quality low-budget sci-fi flicks like The Fly (1958), Kronos (1957), and the ground-breaking Rocketship X-M (1950). Maybe there's a lesson here, like it's easier to direct bug-eyed monsters than a bunch of phony Indians.

In an attempt to limit costs, most of the location shots are lifted from the outstanding John Ford movie "Drums Along The Mohawk" The characters are kind of off-the-wall, with the hero, Scott Brady, a sensitive painter, rather than a gunslinger. He is surrounded by man-hungry buxom babes, but he has eyes mainly for unlikely Indian Rita Gam. The rest of her people look fearsome, particularly Neville Brand and Ted DeCorsia, more familiar as snarling gangsters An entertaining time filler, although unconvincing as a Western adventure. Far more useful to seek out the real thing, "Drums Along The Mohawk", from 1939 (a classic year for Hollywood), which is one of Ford's classics, with strong performances from Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, with a true feel for the era, to which this one doesn't come close

Yes, when I saw that western, I thought I was in a drive in, in my Corvette Stingray with my girl. I was focused on the 3 delicious pin ups, Lori Nelson, Allison Hayes and Rita Gam (as the Indian chief's mohawh daughter, a must see), all three in love with the Casanova painter, fond of nature... shot in studio !!! I forgot all the ridiculous Indian scenes wearing unrealistic costumes, even Neville Brand is badly directed, Neumann was more concentrated on directing his delicious starlettes. And what about the chief's son, definitively not acting like an Indian but rather like a 1956 teenager from Blackboard Jungle. That parody of western would have exasperated late Mr Tavernier. On the French DVD, there is in the bonus a specialist of western and Indians who comments brilliantly this film and the true story of Mohawks, don't miss him.

Ridiculous western about the love of Casanova painter for an Indian girl. It was shot almost entirely in a studio, though the story is set outdoors, so it seems pretty fake, too. It also features a battle between, you guessed it, the BAD Indians and the GOOD whites. Oh, those bad Indians....

3

"Mohawk" is a truly awful movie. In fact, of the 17000 plus films I've reviewed for IMDb, I'd place it among the 10 or so worst movies when it comes to dialog. Yes, the delivery and words the actors speak is simply dreadful. Is it as bad as "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or "Robot Monster"? No...but it's certainly terrible.

The film is set during the American colonial period and the Mohawks in the title of the movie are not happy because they're losing their land. But, since the thing was made in the 1950s, they are the bad guys. Despite being set during a pretty exciting time period, however, nothing about this is exciting and the movie is dreadfully slow. But, it's not quite horrible enough to earn a 1...not that this is any consolation.

Kurt Neumann directed "Mohawk" with unusual skill, and the cast of this amazingly entertaining adventure-drama is far above the usual B-film independent acting ensemble of amy era. The storyline is also quite clearly developed and an interesting historical treatment. In the film's first eight minutes, we meet and care about a dozen characters and set up a strong confrontation between the Mohawk tribe led by T4ed de Corsia and Mae Clarke and the soldiers and settler at Fort Alden, led by John Hudson and the villain of the piece, John Hoyt. Besides these fine actors, the film features Vera Vague, Lori Nelson, Neville Brand, Tommy Cook, Allison Hayes, Rhys Williams and Harry Swoger, plus Rita Gam and Scott Brady as the leads. Its literate script abounds in interesting scenes; the outdoor scenes work well. Gam and de Corsia seem perfect for their parts, giving their speeches expressing the Amerind point of view unusual intensity. Many reviewers liked this film, using terms such as lively, interesting and memorable to describe it. There are small glitches in production, and the movie needed a bigger budget. But I have seen it in B/W, color, English and Spanish; and I can recommend it to those who enjoy Grecianzed Near-Easterns and literate sci-fi and detective films for the same qualities those genres possess--it's about as far from anti-individualist mean-streets naturalism populated by debased postmodernist or character-flawed ugly types as one can get--which is why we go to movies. Its realism is heightened by considerable artistry; the battle scenes are epic; and its psychology works very well on several levels of meaning. A credit to all concerned.

Mohawk has got to be one of the corniest cornball movie-romances ever. When it comes to "love" stories, Mohawk's contrivances border, at times, on the downright laughable.

Set in the mid-1800s at Fort Alden (a remote army post in Texas), Johnathon Adams (a hack-artist and full-time womanizer who's presently juggling 2 gorgeous babes) falls (if you can believe this) head-over-heels for a Pocahontis-type, Iroquois beauty named Onida. With her clear, blue eyes (yes, blue) and decidedly Caucasian features, you can well-bet that Onida's cover-girl looks only add to the already escalating absurdity of Mohawk's flimsier-than-flimsy story.

If you can believe it - Not even when war breaks out between the whites and the redskins does this truly cornball romance between Johnathon and Onida lose its demented intensity or pale even a fraction.

Ho-hum.

As an added bonus that hinges on the ridiculous - Mohawk contains numerous scenes where one minute it's daytime and the next moment it's nightfall - or - Often enough, one minute the skies are perfectly clear and then, presto, clouds dominate the entire heavens.

Anyways - If you're bored and looking for a laugh, or two, check out Mohawk.

I'm not sure what drew me to Mohawk, and after having just seen it I'm even more perplexed. The initial grain of a story is fine but quickly goes off the rails as the male lead isn't a cowboy, or solider, or settler but rather a painter who views himself as a Casanova. Then again, why shouldn't he as all of the three female leads, including the Indian chief's daughter seem to find him irresistible. I mean there is mjore to it than that but that is the storyline that dominate and seems to give this project the only momentum it has. As for the look and feel of the film, yes some solid stock western footage was used but juxtaposed against what is very clearly a sound stage, and a very unrealistic one at that is really tremendously distracting from an already weak story and dialogue. Mohawk is a sub-par outing and one that might be better off left alone.