Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer

1955's "Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer" was the second straight US production for Mexican director Ismael Rodriguez, filming south of the border like the preceding "The Beast of Hollow Mountain," unlike Burt Lancaster's "The Kentuckian," which was actually shot in Kentucky (working titles included "Adventures of Daniel Boone," "Attack on Boonesboro," and "Dan'l Boone"). Trucolor was a cheap outdoor process but it did add some gloss to the shopworn material, an aging Bruce Bennett almost too frail at age 49 to convincingly play the title role (rugged George O'Brien fit the bill in the 1936 "Daniel Boone"), while it's reassuring to find Boone's main nemesis Simon Girty again up to his fiendish old tricks, even if Kem Dibbs can't hold a candle to John Carradine's 1936 version. The slow pacing is further weakened by the nonacting presence of singer Faron Young, performing the same duties as in his feature debut for codirector Albert Gannaway, the still unreleased "Hidden Guns" pitting him against the ever ubiquitous Carradine, who could also be seen in "The Kentuckian!" This film's greatest asset is the solid presence of second billed Lon Chaney as Shawnee Chief Blackfish, blood brother to Daniel Boone, no stranger to sympathetic Native Americans since 1952's "Battles of Chief Pontiac," in which he played a dignified Ottawa chief (this may have had some bearing on his winning the part of Chingachgook in the Canadian-filmed TV series THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS). Blackfish spends much of the picture in thrall to Girty's deceptions, but a spectacular climax finds Boone finally proving himself in the eyes of his blood brother by using his murdered son's corpse. Claudio Brook would go on to a lengthy career in such cult items as "Samson in the Wax Museum," "The Bees," and the James Bond thriller "Licence to Kill."

I live about 25 minutes from the James Boone massacre site. I seen this at a theater was it first came out in the 1950's.right on the heels of Davy Crockett. It was because these early frontier movies that I started reading what ever I could find. I loved the comic books of these movies, but I moved into nonfiction real fast. I wanted facts. There is a lot of history of Boone's life in this movie. It's true this was made by Hollywood, therefore they do change thins to make interesting. They really didn't need too. I've seen worst on the history channel. They started out good. We didn't get cable , so I missed several years when they were they were the History Channel. Then they when way out to counting cars and Pawn Stars. Watch this as history == you will enjoy it I'm sure.

Going to the cinema was the highlight of a child's life during the 1950's and films about "Cowboys and Indians" were always very popular. None of us children were really bothered what the film was all about, just as long as there was lots of fighting, shooting, horses galloping and other sorts of action in the film.

I did not even know what the title of the film was. I remember giving the film my own title. I simply called it "The Indian Fighter".

I was attracted by the poster outside the cinema. It had a yellow and red background and had a black and white image of a man in a "Davy Crockett style", coonskin cap, fighting a ferocious, Mohican-like Indian. The poster excited me so much that I could not wait to get home from school to ask my mother to take me to see the film.

My mother agreed to take me to see it and as we walked down to the cinema, I could not contain my excitement.

However, my aura of excitement soon changed to tears of dismay. The man on the door said that it was not a children's film. He said that many nasty things happened in the film that an innocent child should not see - I cried all the way home. I think my mother had to buy me a colouring book to make me feel better.

I have just managed to track down the film and managed to match it against the poster that I remembered getting excited about as a child. The man, who had spoken to my mother at the door of the cinema, was right. Many "nasty things" did happen in this film that "an innocent child should not see".

However, having watched the film on YouTube, to my mind, the film was not as exciting as the poster that I saw outside the cinema depicted it to be; and not as brutal as the doorman at the cinema, who would not let me in to see it, said it was going to be.

If I had have seen it as a child, I would not have known whether it was a "sugar coated" family film that was trying to be a musical, or a comic adventure that was trying to be a violent history lesson about early frontier life in America.

So, after sixty years of searching for the film that I was never allowed to see, with only a childhood memory of the poster to go on, I will give it 8 out of 10.

After hoo-hooing American Indians scalp number one son, frontiersman Bruce Bennett (as Daniel Boone) seems, at first, like he wants to get even; but, he really wants to make friends with the natives. When sad-eyed Indian chief Lon Chaney Jr. (as Blackfish) also loses number one son, it gets more difficult to clear up misunderstandings. Apparently, this was Republic Pictures' attempt to do for their "Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer" what Disney Studio's had successfully done with "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" (1955).

The "Dan'l Boone" song, whistled and sung by a group of children in a wagon, did not follow Fess Parker's "Davy Crockett" up the Hit Parade. Singer Faron Young (as Faron Callaway) doesn't perform the title song (perhaps wisely); he does sing "Long Green Valley", and makes a good impression as a blond boyfriend for Boone's daughter. But, Spanish actor Freddy Fernandez is the film's most valuable player. In a cute scene, Mr. Fernandez reminds Mr. Young the name of the character ("Susannah") he is supposed to be in love with.

**** Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer (10/5/56) Ismael Rodríguez ~ Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr., Faron Young, Freddy Fernandez

This is a low-budgeted film about the famous adventurer and explorer Daniel Boone (Bruce Bennet) . After the guidance a settlers party from North Caroline to the fertile valley of Kentucky , Boone undergoes several adventures . This time Boone is living along with his wife and sons in Boonesborough , when his eldest son is kidnapped and murdered by the Shawnees Indians . Boone unites a group to track down a carriage full of children that are surrounded by the Indians , but he's taken prisoner and submitted deadly proof ; later on , he escapes . Chief Blackfish (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Boone accord a meeting in the location named Thousand Waterfalls but an Indian masquerading posing as white men threatens the peace . Then , the savage Indians attack the fort Booneesborough .

This shoe-string budget movie chronicling the further feats of our frontier hero , displays adventures , action , and spectacular outdoors . Filmed in Mexico and with Mexican actors as secondaries , such as Claudio Brook and Eduardo Noriega , and giving a surprisingly good acting by Lon Chaney Jr. including a touching weeping . Worn-out color , granulated and lousy cinematography , in spite of gorgeous landscapes . The flick was regularly directed by Albert Gannaway , also in charge of production and soundtrack which includes some songs . The film didn't help to spread Boone-mania among the kids of the 50s and 60s . Other adaptations about this frontiersman hero are the followings : the classic version (1934) by David Howard with George O'Brien and John Carradine , and the known TV series with Fess Parker .

The picture is partially based on real deeds , the actual events are the followings : Daniel Boone (1734-1820) long hunter , Indian fighter , trail-blazing pioneer and first of the frontier folk heroes was born in Pennsylvania . Moving to North Carolina he settled in the Yadkin Valley , supporting his family by hunting, often making long trips for profitable animal skins . The long hunters were so called because their long wildness hunts might last more than a year . Boone was impressed by the Indian hunting grounds of Kentucky and determined to make his home in this unsettled , fertile land rich with game.The journey was thwarted by hostile Indians who killed six of the party including Boone's eldest son . With a band of hardy woodsmen , Boone set forth and blazed a trail , known as the Wilderness Road , through the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountains to the Kentucky River , where they built a fort named Boonesborough , to which later brought his family and a group of settlers. In January 1778 Boone was captured by Shawnee Indians and adopted into tribe as the foster-son of Chief Blackfish . In June escaped escaped to warn Boonesborough of an impeding Shawnee attack . Frustated by legal nullification of his Kentucky lands claims, Boone moved on to Missouri . Boone died aged eighty-six in his son's farmhouse in Missouri.