The Light in the Forest (1958)

A young white man who spent his whole life raised by a Natvie American tribe is sent to live with his true family and must learn to fit in with the people he was taught to hate.

Director:

Herschel Daugherty

Writers:

Conrad Richter (novel), Lawrence Edward Watkin

Stars:

Fess Parker, Wendell Corey, Joanne Dru

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fess Parker	...	Del Hardy
Wendell Corey	...	Wilse Owens
Joanne Dru	...	Milly Elder
James MacArthur	...	Johnny Butler / True Son
Jessica Tandy	...	Myra Butler
John McIntire	...	John Elder
Joseph Calleia	...	Chief Cuyloga
Carol Lynley	...	Shenandoe
Rafael Campos	...	Half Arrow
Frank Ferguson	...	Harry Butler
Dean Fredericks	...	Niskitoon (as Norman Frederic)
Marian Seldes	...	Kate Owens
Stephen Bekassy	...	Col. Henry Bouquet
Sam Buffington	...	George Owens

Storyline

A young white man who spent his whole life raised by a Natvie American tribe is sent to live with his true family and must learn to fit in with the people he was taught to hate.

---

Plot Keywords:

forest | river | 1760s | hero | comeuppance | 

---

Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Western

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 July 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das Herz eines Indianers

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min 93 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Carol Lynley's movie debut.

---

Goofs

In the dance scene, Milly wore a dress. Short sleeves on women's dresses didn't appear until the 1790s, three decades after this film.

---

Connections

Edited into Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color: The Light in the Forest: True Son's Revenge (1961)

---

Soundtracks

"Light in the Forest"
By Hazel George (as Gil George)

User Reviews

Beautiful production, but it needed more humor and heart...

James MacArthur is very good in early role as young white man in 1760s Philadelphia who, years earlier, was kidnapped and raised by the Delaware Indian tribe, now being traded back to his people as part of a peace agreement. The white man's customs have the kid alienated and sullen, but a sympathetic frontiersman and a lovely servant-girl try to help him adjust. MacArthur has a great masculine stance and a firm jaw--and he's unhurt by his Mohawk haircut--but he's perhaps too rigid; the character might have stood some silly, self-effacing moments. Everything in this adaptation of Conrad Richter's book is taken with the utmost seriousness, but where's the heart of the piece? And with whom should our sympathies lie? Wendell Corey overdoes his role as a town bully--not only racist and a liar, but an alcoholic as well--though Fess Parker's good-hearted scout relieves some of the tension in this solemn scenario. Carol Lynley makes her film debut (playing a white girl named, of all things, Shenandoe!); she's sweet flirting with MacArthur, and looks like Alice in Wonderland in her apron-dresses. Well-produced Walt Disney effort given by-the-books treatment, as if it were written and directed by stodgy history professors, though still engaging for fans of old-fashioned entertainment. *** from ****