Tue 22 Mar 2011
Movie Reviews by Dan Stumpf: THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (Two Versions).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[14] Comments
â— THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. United Artists, 1936. Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, Henry Wilcoxon, Bruce Cabot, Heather Angel, Phillip Reed, Robert Barrat, Hugh Buckler. Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Director: George B. Seitz.
â— THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Associated Producers, 1920. Silent. Wallace Beery, Barbara Bedford, Albert Roscoe, Lillian Hall, Henry Woodward, James Gordon. Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Directors: Clarence Brown & Maurice Tourneur.
Since last time I’ve seen two versions of The Last of the Mohicans, neither of them the most recent one (1992).
The 1936 version starred Randolph Scott as Hawkeye and Henry Wilcoxon as Major what’s-is-name. Wilcoxon is not much remembered anymore, but in his day, he was Charlton Heston. He starred in lavish DeMille Costume Epics like Cleopatra (1934) and The Crusades (1935), and toward the end of his career played the Frisian Chieftain in The War Lord (1965).
In Mohicans he’s appropriately stuffy and heroic. As for Randolph Scott, well, he was just too young at this point to make much impression as Hawkeye, and Director George B. Seitz (best remembered for the Silent Perils of Pauline and the talky Andy Hardy series) hasn’t the virility to make him look tougher than he is, the way Henry Hathaway had a few years earlier in Paramount’s Zane Gray Series [e.g., The Last Round-Up, 1934].
Bruce Cabot is quite nice as Magua, though.
The other Mohicans was a silent version from 1920, directed by Maurice Tourneur (Jacque’s Dad) offering really fine visuals, a surprisingly gruesome massacre scene, a memorable performance from someone named Barbara Bedford as the heroine, and Wallace Beery an astonishingly sinister Magua. Without his sugary voice, Beery’s really quite convincing in this part.
Interestingly, Hawkeye is reduced to little more than a walk-on in this film, with most of the time devoted to the growing love between Cora (Bedford) and Uncas, a subplot that is sluffed over in the serial and the ’36 film.
March 22nd, 2011 at 3:51 pm
I’ve seen the Scott version. I thought it was good but not great.
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I like the Scott version better than Dan or Bill. The Philip Dunne screenplay was good enough Michael Mann used it for the 1992 Daniel Day Lewis remake.
Isn’t there yet another version with Harry Carey and Bela Lugosi? Of course it was also done as a television series (with Lon Chaney Jr.) and adapted on MASTERPIECE THEATER.
Wilcoxon turned from acting to producing for much of the late thirties, forties, and fifties. Though he still appeared in numerous films he worked as a producer for Cecil B. De Mille, scouting locations and even acting as a second unit director. after the relatively disasterous failure of THE CRUSADERS which cut short his leading man career.
March 23rd, 2011 at 8:37 am
Raaaaaandollph Scott made an enourmous success out of this part. Audiences at the time went for him in a big way, as did critics. Check out the New York Times notice. Binnie Barnes is also quite good in her part.
March 23rd, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I saw the Masterpiece Theater version long ago, or at least a version on PBS. It was filmed in England, I believe, and the Indians had English accents. I was told that this would have been the case at the time, though I’m not sure even the English in America had what we think of English accents at that time.
March 23rd, 2011 at 6:01 pm
From Wikipedia:
“The American [film] adaptations include a 1912 version starring James Cruze,The Last of the Mohicans (1920), starring Wallace Beery; The Last of the Mohicans (1932), starring Harry Carey; The Last of the Mohicans (1936) starring Randolph Scott; Last of the Mohicans (1963) starring Jack Taylor. Jose Marco, Luis Induni and Daniel Martin; and The Last of the Mohicans (1992), starring Daniel Day-Lewis. The 1920 film has been deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The 1992 version, directed by Michael Mann, was (according to Mann) based more on the 1936 film version than on Cooper’s book.”
and
“There was a Canadian-produced TV series, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans in 1957 with Lon Chaney, Jr. The British Broadcasting Corporation made an eight chapter TV serial of the book in 1971, with Kenneth Ives as Hawkeye, John Abineri as Chingachgook and Philip Madoc as Magua. Steve Forrest starred as Hawkeye with Ned Romero as Chingachgook and Don Shanks as Uncas in a 1977 film for television.”
and
“The Last of the Mohican[s]was adapted for radio in two one-hour episodes directed by Michael Fox and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995 (subsequently on BBC Radio 7), with Michael Fiest, Philip Franks, Helen McCrory and Naomi Radcliffe.”
and
“Marvel Comics has published two versions of the story: in 1976 a one-issue version as part of their Marvel Classics Comics series (issue #13); and in 2007 a six-issue mini-series to start off the new Marvel Illustrated series.”
and
“In 1977, Lake George Opera presented an opera version The Last of the Mohicans by composer Alva Henderson.”
March 23rd, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Bill
It had to have been the BBC version made in 1971 that you saw. One source says that it is “widely considered the most faithful to James Fenimore Cooper’s novel. That’s a mixed blessing, to say the least.” It consists eight episodes on two DVD discs, with a running length of some six hours, so there’s certainly time enough to cover the whole story.
I’d never thought about what kind of accents that the Indians may have had back then. English accents? Why not? But which one?
— Steve
March 23rd, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Re the accent thing I recall reading in the late sixties that if you wanted to hear the true accent and speech patterns of Shakespearian England that it could be found in the back country of the Smoky Mountians among what used to be called hillbillys.
Since they learned English from English traders it is likely the Indians had at least English speech patterns, though many of the tribes would have had French as their first foreigh language making English more difficult.
Who knew all those times Boris Karloff, Henry Wilcoxon, Michael Pate, and their like played Indians they were historically correct?
Now if some of them had Norse accents you could claim an important historical discovery.
Many of the Southwestern tribes spoke English with a Spanish accent.
MOHICANS is late enough hisorically for many of the settlers to have begun to form the American accents we are used to now. While English accents were not uncommon even at the time of the Revolution among the colonists the American voice was already asserting itself, and if you read contemporary accounts of American’s abroad you often encounter the British complaining about the sound of their accents.
No doubt they would sound British to us though. I suspect the educated American of the period had an accent (varying from region to region) that we would identify today as vaguely Middle Atlantic though most of the regional American accents were already notable. Quite a bit was written in journals and letters of the period by men and women on ooth sides of the pond about the ‘barbarous’ American accent.
MOHICANS was the beginning of Randolph Scott’s rise to stardom and his ascent from the lower level B’s. It was a popular and critical success, and Michael Mann credits Philip Dunne’s screenplay in the credits for the 1992 version.
Steve
Don’t forget the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED version — by none other than noted western comic book artist John Severin.
And the MASTERPIECE THEATER (it was shown there in my market) version was very good, and despite being faithful to Cooper, entertaining. I think it is available from A&E Video.
If you have never read it find the piece Mark Twain wrote about Cooper — it’s priceless.
March 24th, 2011 at 6:17 am
The most effective Hawkeye was Harry Carey in the rather indifferent 1932 Mascot serial. Though the serial is long and cheap, the indians (excuse me: Native Americans!) have a nice way of appearing to materialize out of the trees, and Carey as born for the part of Hawkeye, lending the role an authority far beyond this meager film.
March 24th, 2011 at 8:55 am
Dan
Carey is probably the only actor to play the part who was anywhere near the right age for the role.
Hawkeye is a bit like Allan Quatermain in that. In the movies we get Stewart Granger, Richard Chamberlain, and Sean Connery, but Cedric Hardwicke was much closer.
March 24th, 2011 at 11:49 am
When I was in High School, before I started reading detective stories i read adventure novels. I read Cooper’s 5 book saga of the Hawkeye character though in each book he went by a different name. The character was the youngest in THE DEERSLAYER (made into film with Lex Barker) but I believe the second youngest, age wise, was MOHICANS. Since the last book ends with his death and takes place somewhere around 1810 or so, around 50 years after the French and Indian War, Hawkeye could have only been in his early 30’s in that novel, I would estimate.
March 24th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Ray
I grant you the age thing, but the description of the character in the book sounds older, and Carey brings a certain gravitas to the character just by being Harry Carey.
I waded through all the Natty Bumpo books too, at about the same age, and ended up pretty much agreeing with Mark Twain about Cooper until I read THE SPY and some of the sea novels he wrote.
June 12th, 2017 at 7:44 pm
I have seen and liked every version of the story. However, Hawkeye was a colonial frontiersman in what would become America. Harry Caray was the authentic and best Hawkeye. Randolph Scott was the 2nd best hampered by looking too clean for the role.
June 13th, 2020 at 9:28 pm
You’re all a bunch of cultural illiterates. Fenimore was the first great novelist America produced, the Leatherstocking tales are iconic formulations of the American character, and “The Last of the Mohicans,” his masterpiece, is THE Great American Novel. Harry Carey, Randolph Scott, and Daniel Day-Lewis are all clowns in commercial versions made for quick bucks which are a travesty of the novel. With due homage to Maurice Tourneur’s 1920 version — a masterpiece of the silent cinema — featuring memorable portrayals by Barbara Bedford as Cora, Albert Roscoe as Uncas, and Harry Lorraine as a capable but too-little-seen Hawk-eye, the 1971 BBC/Masterpiece Theater version is THE VERY BEST!!!!! Totally faithful to the spirit and the letter of the original, Kenneth Ives is perfect as Hawk-eye — no female romance novel hero like DDL, but a philosophical frontiersman. I cannot praise the rest of the cast enough, especially Philip Madoc as Magua. The BBC version blows away all of the sound Hollywood ones like all of the cannon of Fort William Henry trained upon one canoe of Hurons!!!!!!!!!!!
February 17th, 2021 at 3:48 pm
I hope you do The Warlord sometime, one the all time greats.