The Deerslayer (1957)

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 there 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 place atop it.

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 Hurons want revenge, not to mention the scalps of their dead braves.

Lex Barker as Deerslayer, coming upon two women in the forest in The Deerslayer (1957)

Forrest Tucker as Harry March, forced to chose between his love of gold and his love for Judith in The Deerslayer (1957)

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 upon which our heroes take refuge.

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.

Rita Moreno as Hetty, learning the truth about her background in The Deerslayer (1957)

Cathy O’Donnell as Judith Hunter, the woman hoping for a more exciting life in Albany with Harry March in The Deerslayer (1957)

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.

Jay Flippen as Tom Hutter with the sack of scalps he’s taken to avenge a dead wife in The Deerslayer (1957)

Carlos Rivas as Chingachgook, Deerslayer’s faithful sidekick in The Deerslayer (1957)

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.”

Lex Baker as Deerslayer, discovering the hiding spot for Tom Hutter’s gold and scalps in The Deerslayer (1957)

Joseph Vitale as the Huron chief, vowing a slow death for Tom Hutter and his friends in The Deerslayer (1957)

Lex Barker as Deerslayer and Jay Flippen as Tom Hutter, loading the cannon that sits atop his fortified boat in The Deerslayer (1957)

Jay Flippen as Tom Hutter with daughters Hetty (Rita Moreno) and Judith (Cathy O’Donnell), fearing the fate that awaits them as captives of the Hurons in The Deerslayer (1957)

Forrest Tucker as Harry March explaining the urgency of getting the Hutter girls to safety to Deerslayer (Lex Barker) and Chingachgook (Carlos Rivas) in The Deerslayer (1957)

Rita Moreno as Hetty and Cathy O’Donnell as Judith, spotting their father on a stake surrounded by fire in The Deerslayer (1957)