The Deerslayer (1957)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Kurt Neumann

Writers:

James Fenimore Cooper (novel)
Carroll Young (writer) ...

Release Date:

10 September 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | War | Western

Plot:

In colonial America, wanderer Deerslayer gets involved with Tom Hutter, a bigoted trapper, and his two contrasting daughters.

Plot Keywords:

Wilderness | Colonial America | Deer | Beautiful Woman | Native American

Cast

Lex Barker	...	Deerslayer
Rita Moreno	...	Hetty Hutter
Forrest Tucker	...	Harry March
Cathy O'Donnell	...	Judith Hutter
Jay C. Flippen	...	Old Tom Hutter
Carlos Rivas	...	Chingachgook
Joseph Vitale	...	Huron chief
John Halloran	...	Old Warrior
Addison Richards

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:12 (original rating) | Norway:7 (re-rating) (1977) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Madera County, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Movie Connections:

Version of The Deerslayer (1943)

More like a TV show than a movie

I've always shared Mark Twain's views on James Fenimore Cooper's writing & would much rather see a decent movie version of any Natty Bumpo story than having to wade through the ponderous verse, & tuned into American Movie Classics tonight to see one of the many movie versions out there about The Deerslayer. Made in 1957, this cut-rate production starring Lex Barker (who played Tarzan a few times before this), Rita Moreno (whom I have never seen this young) & Forrest Tucker (whom I like much better on "F Troop") comes across as something only marginally as good as something you might have seen produced by "The Wonderful World Of Disney." Or maybe by Sid & Marty Krofft, to be seen as the live-action segments on "The Banana Splits."

Deerslayer & his faithful Indian companion Chingachgook stumble onto an old trader (Tucker) who asks for their help in protecting a crazy old man & his two daughters from a Huron assault. Well-groomed & stoic throughout, Deerslayer agrees (for some reason) & meets the old man on his floating fort in the middle of the river. The crazy codger hates Indians, & he seems to pamper & flatter his oldest daughter while telling his youngest (played by Moreno) that she's feeble-minded. Deerslayer has suspicions about the whole set-up, but you don't have to be an avid mystery-novel reader to figure out the reasons behind the Huron charge. Barker, constantly posing with his gun & giving those humored looks at the women that George Reeves as Superman always did, plays an android Deerslayer, & the fight scenes are about as exciting as the cliched "Yi yi yi" the Huron holler out when attacking is threatening.

I guess this was made for the Saturday-morning-movie crowd, but there's a part of me that can't believe that even children of the 1950s would be taken in by what now seems obvious: the ridiculously stereotyped Indians, the bad, off-the-screen violence poorly done, even the wooden performance by Barker must've been seen as more comic than heroic. Daniel Day-Lewis frantically saying, "Don't worry, I'll find you!" never looked better.