Last of the Mohicans (1977)

Andrew Prine is Maj. Heyward, assigned the task of escorting sisters Cora and Alice Munro to Fort William Henry for a reunion with their father.

Heyward soon begins to mistrust his assigned guide Magua (Robert Tessler), rides off ahead and encounters Hawkeye (Steve Forrest), his Mohican friend Chingachgook (Ned Romero) and his son Uncas (Don Shanks).

They take over the task of guiding the major, the two ladies and a singing priest named David Gamut, who has the bad habit of bursting into song whenever frightened.

Magua, of course, is Huron and had every intention of guiding his party into a trap in order to capture the Munro sisters.

He hasn’t given up that plan, and succeeds in cornering his prey in a cave while Hawkeye forges on ahead.

But Hawkeye is a renown frontiersmen and isn’t about to leave his friends in the hands of his enemy without doing his best to free them.

Review:

A TV movie, this aired on NBC and certainly isn’t among the best versions of the oft-told tale.

There’s plenty of action, but the addition of Gamut’s character as comic relief really doesn’t work, and there’s one scene in which a large Huron village is hilariously empty of Indians with the exception of one overweight squaw.

Perhaps more problematic is a lack of development of the female characters. They’re daughters of a British officer, bad things could happen to them in Huron hands and they need to be protected. Period.

The film’s budget apparently wasn’t big enough to depict the siege on Fort William Henry or the subsequent massacre, so our characters learn of those events from two lonely British couriers who have been scouring the countryside for the sisters.

This was followed by The Deerslayer (1978), with Forrest and Romero reprising their roles and an extended flashback recounting the death of Uncas.

Directed by:
James L. Conway

Cast:
Steve Forrest … Hawkeye
Ned Romero …. Chingachgook
Andrew Prine … Maj. Heyward
Don Shanks … Uncas
Michele Marsh … Cora Munro
Jane Actman … Alice Munro
Robert Tessler … Magua
Robert Easton … David Gamut
Whit Bissell … Gen. Webb

Runtime: 96 min.

Memorable lines:

David Gamut: “Major, when I was a mere lad, an elder in the church council said a plea made in song is better heard by the Lord. Thus whenever sickly fear grabs my throat, it insinctively bursts forth in sacred song. I cannot help myself.”
Maj. Heyward: “If you alert the Hurons to our presence, more than fear will grip your precious throat.”

Hawkeye: “Miss Munro, I’ve seen more savages in lace collars and velvet pants than in warpaint.”

Maj. Heyward: “Magua’s gone. He’s disappeared into the forest.”
Hawkeye: “Let him go. He’s a snake without fangs now.”

Hawkeye: “The meaning of the word savage depends on who’ speaking it.”

Robert Easton as David Gamut, the singing preacher in Last of the Mohicans (1977)

Ned Romero as Chingachgook and Don Shanks as Uncas in Last of the Mohicans (1977)