Mon 7 Jul 2014
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: BATTLES OF CHIEF PONTIAC (1952).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[12] Comments
BATTLES OF CHIEF PONTIAC. Realart Pictures, 1952. Lex Barker, Helen Westcott, Lon Chaney Jr., Berry Kroeger, Roy Roberts. Director: Felix E. Feist.
Battles of Chief Pontiac is a good, albeit not great, historical drama/early frontier Western starring Lon Chaney Jr. and Lex Barker of Tarzan fame. Directed by Felix Feist, whose film noir, The Man Who Cheated Himself I reviewed here, the movie benefits from solid acting from Chaney in his portrayal of Ottawa Indian Chief Pontiac and from its on location South Dakota setting.
The film’s narrative and script, however, suffers from its forced moralism. While the filmmakers should be credited for their willingness to depict Indians as societally more complex than mindless warriors, they may have gone a bit overboard in their decision to depict Chief Pontiac as more as a seeker of peace than as the warrior he actually was. They chose, for instance, not to make the historical Chief Pontiac’s attack and siege on Fort Detroit the focus of their film.
The plot of the movie isn’t very complex, with few surprises or unexpected plot twists. Lt. Kent McIntire (Barker) is acting as a liaison between the British, led by Major Gladwin (Roy Roberts) and Ottawa Chief Pontiac (Chaney). His goal is to help establish peace between the two peoples. But things get complicated when Pontiac’s men take white hostages, including Winifred Lancaster (Helen Westcott) who — to no one’s surprise — becomes McIntire’s love interest.
The real drama begins, however, when a Hessian officer, the incredibly creepy Colonel Von Weber (Berry Kroeger), takes over the reins from Major Gladwin. Von Weber is a racist to the core, spewing vitriol about the Indians. Truth be told, it’s all a bit undignified. The filmmakers could have made their point even better if they had chosen to be subtle about it.
In any case, Von Weber is a really bad guy and a bit too, should we say, Third Reich, for a film set in eighteenth-century Michigan.
Although Pontiac is willing to enter into peace negotiations, the Hessian decides it would be better to deliver smallpox infested blankets to Pontiac’s people. This leads, of course, to both untold suffering on the part of the Ottawa Indians and therefore to Chief Pontiac’s decision to wage battle against the Von Weber and his men.
It’s then up to Tarzan — I mean, McIntire — to intercede so as to prevent a complete bloodbath. By the time it’s all over, Chief Pontiac is once again willing to make peace with the British, McIntire and Lancaster are in love, and Von Weber has suffered a rather horrific death from smallpox. Not that you are supposed to feel remotely sorry for him. He’s one of the least sympathetic characters I’ve ever seen in any historical drama.
Chaney is actually very good in this. His voice and mannerisms are excellent, even if he is stuck at times with some embarrassingly bad dialogue. There are moments when he appears to be the only actor in the film taking it with the seriousness the subject matter deserves. As to how much of all this is historically accurate, probably not all that much.
In conclusion, Battles of Chief Pontiac is a well-meaning, low budget production that portrays Indians and their customs quite differently from other films of that era. It just doesn’t nearly live up to its potential.
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July 7th, 2014 at 7:53 pm
Speaking of historical accuracy, someone on IMDb points out the following:
“The primary villains are Hessian troops and their leader. However, Hessian soldiers were not deployed in North America until the American Revolution, at least ten or more years after the events of this movie.”
This seems to agree with Wikipedia:
“About 18,000 Hessian troops first arrived in North America in 1776, with more coming in later.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_%28soldiers%29
Lex Barker was Tarzan when I grew up, through and through. I don’t know if my opinion has changed since then, as I haven’t seen one of his Tarzan films since I was maybe 12 or 14. What I do know, based on other movies Barker was in, is that he wasn’t nearly the actor that Johnny Weissmuller was. (Tongue in cheek here.)
July 7th, 2014 at 8:29 pm
No tongue in cheek: Barker brought grace and athleticism to Tarzan, but Weissmuller brought those things and empathy, which is why he is so well remembered. As for The Battle of Chief Pontiac, I saw as a child at a theatre. I immediately, and with incredible perspicacity, recognized it as under produced, dully acted, and about nothing much, although I did think that the producers had not read, but seen films depicting The Last of the Mohicans and picked the parts they liked best and made Nazi’s the villains. Sort of an unofficial tribute to James Fennimore Cooper.
July 7th, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Those similarities to James Fenimore Cooper’s works might have helped Chaney secure the role of Chingachgook in the 1956-57 Canadian TV series, “Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans.”
July 8th, 2014 at 10:05 am
Lex Barker starred in THE DEERSLAYER. I remember the ending of this film and nothing else. Back when the History Channel actually ran programs about history they did a documentary on Pontiac’s Rebellion. He managed to take every British fort in western Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Michigan except Pittsburgh and Detroit.
July 8th, 2014 at 10:24 am
Pontiac is a was more interesting historical figure than the movie gives him credit for. Given that Chaney was taking the role seriously, it’s a shame he didn’t have a better script to work with
July 8th, 2014 at 3:21 pm
I saw this on TV as a kid. The one thing I remembered was the plot to infect Indians with smallpox-infested blankets. Lex Barker’s 1960s Old Shatterhand movies still have a following in Germany.
July 8th, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Fred
Same here, when I saw Barker in a western my mind went to Old Shatterhand, Winnetou, and Karl May.
There is nothing special about the Barker Tarzan’s, the follow in the mood of the latter Weismuller films though Barker is fitter by then. He kept the series going long after most B movie series were done though.
Barker had a checkered career in Europe from Karl May (he was also Kara Ben Nemsi in several Easterns) to Dr. Mabuse.
He had a high IQ and spoke multiple languages, but he was always a little stiff on screen, maybe his best outing the one as Q Patrick’s Peter Duluth, The Female Fiends, a fairly faithful adaptation of a Patrick novel.
July 9th, 2014 at 3:53 pm
” In any case, Von Weber is a really bad guy and a bit too, should we say, Third Reich, for a film set in eighteenth-century Michigan.”
There’s a similar precursor of twentieth century German officers in John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn. Were there any examples in other post-war Westerns?
July 9th, 2014 at 7:59 pm
Hector,
In Cheyenne Autumn there is historical justification.
July 10th, 2014 at 7:09 pm
The Hessian officer in this film played an instrumental role in the plot. However, it made the story historically inaccurate. Probably the best use of German soldiers in westerns are in those films set in early 20th-century Mexico
July 11th, 2014 at 2:23 pm
There aren’t a lot of Revolutionary war era movies to begin with, and it has always eluded Hollywood at the Box Office and with the critics with a handful of exceptions like Sturges The Scarlet Coat, Hathaway’s Ten Gentlemen From West Point (post Revolution), Gibson’s hyperkinetic The Patriot, de Mille’s The Unconquered(pre Revolution), 1776, and Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk. The French and Indian wars fared much better on screen thanks to James Fennimore Cooper and Kenneth Roberts.
There were German mercenaries in the British army, though the Hessians were a distinct group and not in this country in this time period. As Jonathan points out the Mexican Revolution proved a richer ground for Nazified pre Nazi Germans than the Revolution. Remarkably little has been done with the Hessians dramatically considering their reputation. But considering George II’s father spoke only German and George III spoke German as much as English the presence of non Hessian German’s in the pre Revolutionary period would not be unlikely.
Good performance by Chaney in this one. He was always underrated. I’ve always loved him as the arthritic lawman in High Noon.
Notice the bare torsoed Barker on one of the posters — I suppose they were trying to bring in a few Tarzan fans.
July 11th, 2014 at 10:10 pm
There’s also a scene in the movie that was almost certainly designed for Tarzan fans. In one scene, Barker gratuitously takes off his shirt for a fight scene with one of Chief Pontiac’s men.
Agreed on Chaney. He was very underrated and was a much better actor than the films he was cast in.
As far as Germans in Mexico, “The Wild Bunch” immediately comes to mind.