The Deerslayer (1957) User Reviews (11)

Colorful and luminous adventure with spectacular scenarios and decent cast

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 1 October 2022]

In the wilderness of early Colonial days , mountain man Deerslayer (Lex Barker) and his Mohican blood-brother, Chingachgook (Carlos Rivas) get involved with trapper Tom Hutter (J. C. Flippen) who is living with his two contrasting daughters (Rita Moreno, Cathy O'Donnell who's in love for wanderer Forrest Tucker) on an isolated floating fort . Tom's one-man vengeance against Indians has brought the wrath of the Hurons down on him , thereby garnering the reluctant aid of wilderness hunter Deerslayer . Among adventures, violence and escapes , a batch of dirty and dark secrets emerges.. James Fenimore Cooper's Great Adventure Classic !. Last of the Great Mohicans...First of the Great Pioneers... Bravery, Loyalty and Wilderness Justice.

This is a thrilling film set in colonial America, with plenty of action , battles , violence , a love story , and including breathtaking outdoors . This peculiar B frontier western in 1950-style containing overwhelming adventures , intrigue , fights and romance . It's a quickie with lack luster and low budget but it manages to be at least an enjoyable adventure movie because containing action, sensational outdoors and outlandish thrills situations abound . The story is neither realistic nor ambitious, but sympathetic with good scenarios, costumes and gorgeous landscapes . Excellent action sequences with bloody attacks and spectacular as well as impressive fights. Charismatic performance for all casting . There are magnificently photographed scenes featuring forests, lakes , rivers and mountains . The reason why The Deerslayer holds up so well even today is that director Kurt Neumann invests his roles with dignity and strength. The sextet of starring actors : Lex Barker , Rita Moreno , Forrest Tucker , Cathy O'Donnell , Carlos Rivas are pretty well with special mention for Jay C. Flippen as the bigoted father.

The film displays a haunting and rich cinematography capturing flavor of colonial life by Karl Struss, Neumann's usual cameraman. The motion picture was nicely produced and directed by Kurt Neumann (The fly, Cronos , She-Devil , Tarzan and the leopard woman). German-born film director, a specialist in second features. Made the rounds of Hollywood studios, beginning with Universal , followed by RKO , Paramount and United Artists . From 1945 worked for Sol Lesser, in the dual capacity of director and co-producer, on the "Tarzan" franchise. Excelled in low-budget crime thrillers , westerns and science-fiction subjects, such as Rocket K-1 (1950) and The Fly (1958), arguably his most successful and best-known picture. This vigorous picture The Deerslayer (1957) obtained limited successful but results to be agreeable enough . It's a good stuff for young people and adventures lovers who enjoy enormously with the extraordinary dangers on the luxurious landscapes and marvelous Technicolor photography. Rating : 6/10, acceptable and passable . The flick will appeal to adventure and Western fan .

Racist? Yes and No! (with some spoilers)

[werder-26857 · 6/10 · 31 December 2021]

Native American Indians were only partly shown as savages (especially their the cliched shouting). But the main character, the Deerslayer (Lex Barker), also showed empathy and understanding for the actions of the Native American Indians. Actually he rather condemned the attitude and business of the white scalp hunters when he was attacked by the Native Indians. Also, the hatred for Native Indians is criticized in this movie.

Even the white daughter of the scalp hunter scolded her admirer and future husband for murdering Native Indians and destroying their lives.

Furthermore, the Deerslayer also condemned the judgment of foster daughter of the white scalp hunter (that she is stupid), the Native Indian woman (Rita Moreno). She is portrayed as rather brave when she - like the white daughter - goes to the Hurons armed with a rifle. They are not much more helpless than any of the white men, even if they fight less (hence not only the female leads get captured!). Because almost every white person and those non-whites who have a loyal relationship with them have been caught by the Hurons, except one white man who is also portrayed in this movie as racist (as the buyer of Native Indian scalps) and flaws in his character (traitor, scrupulous etc).

The blood brother of the Deerslayer, Chingachgook, is also shown as loyal and reasonable (like Rita Morena's character) and not as a savage.

Actually, the more I think of it, those two sculp hunters and traders were actually portrayed as worse than any Native Indians.

And to show that Native Indians have a particular 6th sense might be a generalization, but is absolutely nothing negative at all. I would like to have a sixth sense and many other people, too.

So in other words, in this movie stereotypes and racism are being shown, yes. However, racism and hatred against Native Indians (of ONE character in the movie! ....who also regarded the young Native Indian woman as his daughter and as equal to his white daughter) are condemned in this movie. Surely, it can and should be criticized that she was kidnapped and her family was killed.

However, we need to differentiate this movie more. It is not that simple to condemn the whole movie as racist, and in most movies (e.g. With John Wayne) Native Indians were actually much more portrayed as savages.

Besides, as already mentioned, movies are products of its time and were not being regarded as racist, sexist or Politically inCorrect then. How many people knew or cared about these words back then? And let's not forget that our hero, the Deerslayer, has a Mohican blood brother...a partner whom he regards as an equal partner and family member in his movie and not as a bad or stupid or in any other way inferior partner.

I would not say watching the movie was a waste of time, although there are better movies generally and also about this age.

And this movie is also not a Western movie. The territory of the Hurons in the 18th century was north of Lake Ontario (nowadays Canada, then a colony of France). Even the Midwest was not then in British possession. The British colonies then were only on the East Coast. In other words, this movie was actually more a Colonial and/or Eastern than a Western.

I also do not see any evidence that even the studio was ashamed of this one movie. Furthermore, it does not make any sense that this Deerslayer is more racist than the old guy and that Rita Moreno was both degraded and exploited...at least not anymore than any other actress or actor who played roles where they could not shine.

The movie was predictable, but the acting - though not the best - was okay, some action, some morals, some truth being shown (that scalp-hunting was not just done by Native Americans, but also White people) and beautiful scenery.

Somewhere between 6 and 6.4 out of 10.

There's more to New York history than just the building of its big cities.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 6 June 2022]

The white man here is represented by three types: Lex Barker as completely honorable (having been taken in by friendly Mohawks as a surrogate member of their tribe), Forrest Tucker who utilizes tough language and shows racist tendencies but accepts the natives who are fairly submissive, and Jay C. Flippen whose religious beliefs has him certain that all natives are savages and cannot be converted to Christianity. He reaps what he does, captured and tortured for information by the more seemingly wild Huron tribe whom the Mohawks according to this don't get on with. It doesn't matter that the Mohawks and Hurons are all part of the Iroquois tribe and speak the same language. According to this, the individual nations are either pacifist and hospitable or savage and unrelenting.

The sinister Flippen has two beautiful daughters, Cathy O'Donnell and Rita Moreno, with the later psychologically abused by her father. They don't seem to be all related, so the viewer suspects that Moreno may have a secret to her bloodline that she is unaware of. The script does try to humanize both tribes, although the Mohawks are only represented by Carlos Rivas who looks savage but is a kitten compared to how the Hurons are presented. Joseph Vitale as the Huron chief does get some revealing dialog that manages to humanize him. He's a gentleman in comparison to the bigoted hateful character that Flippen plays.

I'd love to see a restored full Cinemascope print of this that shows more of the upper New York State vistas. I may not have liked Flippen's character, but he had a great houseboat to live on, that's for sure. So while there are many dated elements of this "eastern", there are some aspects of it that do manage to give a sympathetic voice to the natives. The shot of Tucker carrying by himself a full cannon manages to garner some unintentional laughs. I may not have liked his character, but he is the most colorful of the three white men.

Good Fenimore Cooper adaptation

[searchanddestroy-1 · 12 November 2023]

I always assoociate Kurt Neuman the director as a science fiction film maker, but no he also made something else besides KRONOS, ROCKETSHIP XM, THE FLY...He also offered us MOHAWK - close to this one - and some adventure movies such as WATUSI, some TARZAN films for RKO with Johnny Weissmuller, and westerns: KID FROM TEXAS, DESPERADOES ARE IN TOWN.... Only films noirs miss in his career, or very small ones which I have never seen. So, this one is a very agreeable adventure western flick with a Lex Barker very comfortable in this role which seemd to have been made for him. The only regret I have is to watch it in Pan and f...scan frame. Instead its genuine LBX. Painful.

Even the studio was ashamed of this one!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 15 June 2017]

Copyright 1957 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: September 1957. U.K. release: 8 December 1957. Australian release: 26 December 1957. Sydney opening at the Palace. 6,868 feet. 76 minutes.

SYNOPSIS : Leather-Stocking and his Mohican blood-brother become involved in an embittered settler's one-man war against the Huron Indians.

NOTES: Cooper's novel was previously filmed in 1923 and again in 1943.

Fox's 86th CinemaScope feature and the first from the home office that failed to secure a New York opening. Fox's U.K. office were so ashamed of this low-budget offering that they managed to successfully pass it off as a Regal Film.

COMMENT: Disappointing. True, Neumann can use the CinemaScope screen effectively at times, but his good intentions are undermined both by his over-talkative script with its often unintentionally risible lines and by his roster of distinctly second-string players. True, all the players have proved themselves capable of much better things, but oddly enough the only person to give a halfway decent performance here is Forrest Tucker, the runt of the acting litter.

Despite a fair amount of location lensing, Neumann's minuscule budget imposes such production limitations that most viewers are likely to be bored stiff. Neumann has tried to spark up interest by accenting violence and brutality but this stratagem only further lessens this Deerslayer's already rather limited appeal.

Great location

[greenheart · 6/10 · 23 October 2022]

Lex Barker hanging around with a Mohican, guys in Davy Crockett hats and two ridiculously beautiful women. Native Indians in canoes, all we needed was Hawaii 5-0 music.

The scenery with the cabin on the lake was stunning and to be honest, this is the best part of the movie.

It's not short on action, lots of gun fights, hand to hand combat and even a small cannon thrown in, some of it is not overly convincing but the movie is watchable and the decision to keep it short was sensible.

The acting such as when a guy got caught in a bear-trap is fairly basic and the whole thing, watching it now, is a little non-PC.

Totally *NOT* Politically Correct (WARNING; CONTAINS ***SPOILERS***!!)

[Ty Shadow · 1/10 · 3 September 2001]

"The Deerslayer," much like the novel that came before it, is perhaps one of many politically INcorrect movies in America. Sure, the guy who wrote the book lived 150 years ago, but he had an excuse; he and the rest of the settlers were probably so busy trying to survive in unknown territory that they could afford to be completely ignorant of the fact that the Native Americans were people just like him. Civil Rights were the LEAST of their problems.

The people who made this horrible movie, however, have absolutely NO excuse for the crude, offensive portrayal of Native Americans. It seemed at first that they were *trying* to be politically correct (or PC, as I usually abbreviate it), but it sank to using terms like "savages" and kept the focus entirely on the white characters and the "good Indian."

Speaking of Indians, here's one of the many ***SPOILERS*** I warned you about; Hetty Hutter (played by the brilliant Rita Moreno) is NOT Judith's sister - Hetty is actually an Indian that the old guy took from a camp he would later set fire to (she was just a baby when this happened). I have two MAJOR problems with this. First of all, if the old guy hates Indians so much, WHY WOULD HE BOTHER TO TAKE ONE OF THEIR BABIES??? The movie says it's because he thought he could raise her to be "normal," and not like one of her "savage race," and by now we all should know that this is SO RACIST. At best, this establishes the old guy as a villain (though not THE villain). I found myself wanting him to die and I loathed the main character for wanting to save him, but the old guy's final death took so darn long, I couldn't enjoy it. Second, prior to the discovery of Hetty's true heritage, everyone thought she was just stupid (or crazy). The idiot screen-hog who plays Deerslayer tries to comfort her (she's *saddened* by this discovery) by making up some gibberish about Indians having some sort of 6th sense that's unique to their genes and that it's okay if she wasn't "one of us." I don't remember the exact wording - it came off sounding completely racist (more so than the old guy), and when I tried to think about it, the characters had moved on to the next problem.

And, not surprisingly, this movie's also UNBELIEVABLY SEXIST! Rita Moreno constantly looks like she wants to get in on some of the action, but the white male screen-hogs are the ones who get to do the fight-scenes. All Hetty gets to do action-wise is dive into a lake and carry a knife in the hopes of rescuing Judith - but Hetty gets captured, as all female leads before 1973 did. Poor Rita. I had hoped her character would get to be one of the heroes, too - but it turns out that all Hetty was there for was to;

1) look odd (or "exotic," as I've heard her be described),

2) add to the pathetic drama,

and

3) make Deerslayer LOOK like he's all for equal opportunity (when he's really just like the old racist guy).

Rita Moreno, one of my favorite actresses, persevered through a movie that both degraded and exploited her. I have to give her 8 stars for her bravery. However, as a staunch supporter of Civil rights, I cannot - in good conscience - give "The Deerslayer" more than one star.

Acceptable in its time...46 years ago!

[HONEYWALL1 · 10/10 · 31 July 2003]

The others contributing to the comments section on this 1957 film seem pre-occupied with the so-called Political Correctness and racism of today. One goes so far as to say that he can't understand how children of the 1950's could accept this as entertainment. Well, let me comment on the last thing first. This film was released in the UK in December, 1957, when I was ten and three quarters years of age. At that time, both myself and all my boyhood pals had recently gone through the Davy Crockett phase and subsequently, any movie set in Colonial America and having plenty of yipping injuns; frontiersmen and flintlock muskets and pistols was bound to be popular with us. In this respect and at that very different time, THE DEERSLAYER was bound to be popular with the juvenile audience it was aimed at. It also had beautiful, warm and sunlit scenery, spendidly photographed

in CinemaScope and Color by De Luxe and a memorable score by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.

At the time, I thought this film was marvellous and very exciting, especially the Indian attack on the fort in the middle of the lake. Me and my pals had a new hero in The Deerslayer and incorporated him into our games of cowboys and Indians in which some of us would play the Hurons, mown down mercilessly by the musket fire of the other boys.

This may seem very strange now to younger readers of this site who can't remember the 1950's, but this was the way it was then. Throughout our childhood, we had been indoctrinated by the cinema into believing that what would now be considered racist ideas about native Americans were correct. They were represented as "squalling polecats" and "savages" and "heathens", not as people. Just as anonymous targets to be mown down. A hindrance and a thorn in the side of white settlers pushing the frontier Westward.

So this film is a product of its time and should not be judged by our modern standards. There had been the very isolated film like BROKEN ARROW, that gave a more accurate and sympathetic view of the American Indian, but for every BROKEN ARROW, there were a dozen films of the calibre of THE DEERSLAYER; THE GUNS OF FORT PETTICOAT and DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE. I do not think that our ideas as children about Red Indians would have been considered racist in 1957, because we kids had never heard that word at that time. But I like to think that we've all grown up a lot in our knowledge and attitudes since then. After all, I realise now that the Indians were fighting for their land, which was being stolen from them by the whites and fighting to preserve their way of life. They had a right to fight back. Looked at today, THE DEERSLAYER may look corny and racist, but it was filmed in 1957, not 2003. For it's time, then, a rousing Boy's Own adventure that would have been popular with juveniles. Modern boys in the eight to thirteen age bracket, though, probably wouldn't like it.

Not So Racist After All

[Equinox23 · 9/10 · 7 March 2017]

Judging from other reviews this must be a quite racist movie, when in fact it isn't.

First of all the Native Americans, here represented by the Hurons, do not carry the main conflict. In fact they are quite civilized, for they agree to let their sworn enemy, Hutter, go free in return for the scalps of the people Hutter has killed.

The actual conflicting parties are Old Hutter and Harry March on the one side and mainly Deerslayer and Chingachook on the other. The main mystery for Deerslayer to solve - and it is no McGuffin - is why the Hurons are attacking and it really is something despicable and dark: Old Hutter has been hunting for Native Americans and with the help of Harry March been selling their scalps. Old Hutter does it to revenge his wife and March is in it for the money, which in fact will bring Deerslayer and Chingachook in pretty bad trouble. Something that Deerslayer decidedly is horrified by.

Even though one might argue about the happy ending, it is the movie's merit to explicitly show this horrible practice of putting a price on Native Americans' scalps.

racism and sexism

[Roman-Nies · 10/10 · 31 December 2022]

For all those who critisize possible racism and sexism in this film. Well so, whatever You like, but you need to know that the people who lived there in Northern America where different than you today. They made some mistakes you today do not make, whereas you make some mistakes they did not make then. You have to accept that history went its way without you 200 years ago. It is your right to hate racism. But life in the wilderness over there was brutal and had a darwinian attitude and I am sure that you find also some reasons to hate sbd or sth. I am no friend of hate or darwin, but it is human.

More like a TV show than a movie

[selfhelpradio · 28 August 2001]

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.