Lex Barker is the title character; Carlos Rivas plays his sidekick Chingachgook. They’re hunting one day when they come to the aide of a trapper (Forrest Tucker as Harry March) who’s attacked by Huron warriors.
The trapper’s on a mission. He has a load of supplies to deliver to a fort, and their are two white women at the fort he hopes to guide to the safety of a nearby town of Albany. Turns out the fort is a boat turned into a fort with the help of a cannon.
It’s occupant is a crazy old man named Tom Hutter, who lost his wife to Huron many years before. The white women are his daughters — pretty, flirtatious Judith, and shy, tomboyish Hetty.
Slowly, Deerslayer comes to realize what Tom Hutter’s been up to all these years and why he built the fort. He’s been avenging his wife by taking the scalps of as many Hurons as he can. And the trapper (Forrest Tucker as Harry March) has been taking those scalps to town and trading them for supplies.
Now, of course, the Huron want revenge, not to mention the scalps of their dead braves.
Review:
Silly in spots to be sure, but far more original than you’d expect from the title, thanks in large part to that floating fort our heroes take refuge on.
Rita Moreno is lovely as Hetty, a young girl who’s been taught that she’s not quite right in the head and far inferior to her sister Judith. Deerslayer gets her to see things differently; she eventually learns that she’s not Old Tom’s daughter at all.
Barker rose to fame by playing Tarzan in five films. He’s return to buckskins later in his career as another famous character — Old Shatterhand — in a series of German-made Westerns. Barker was married five times, including to actresses Arlene Dahl and Lana Turner.
Directed by:
Kurt Neumann
Cast:
Lex Barker … Deerslayer
Rita Moreno … Hetty Hutter
Forrest Tucker … Harry March
Cathy O’Donnell … Judith Hutter
Jay Flippen … Old Tom Hutter
Carlos Rivas … Chingachgook
Joseph Vitale … Huron chief
John Halloran … Old warrior
Runtime: 78 min.
Memorable lines:
Judith to Hetty: “Aren’t you little Miss Modest? I bet if you got married, you’d wear those buckskins to bed.”
Judith: “My goodness, Harry, you don’t have to squeeze the living daylights out of me.”
Harry: “When I grab a gal, something’s gotta give. Usually it’s the gal.”
Old Tom Hutter, explaining his penchant for taking scalps: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That’s what the good book says. But I don’t stop with an eye and a tooth. I go a mite further, I do.”
Deerslayer: “Only treacherous dogs bite the hand that helps them.”
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