In 1840 Montana, smallpox is raging in a Blackfoot village and Chief Winterhawk (Michael Dante) has no idea how to help his people.
A white mountain man friend named Guthrie (Leif Erickson) suggests that the whites might have come up with a cure and that Winterhawk should try to arrange a trade for medicine.
The chief follows that advice. But the white settlers are spooked by the very mention of smallpox.
And when Winterhawk and his men leave with the furs they intended to use for trade, they’re ambushed by two whites named Gates (L.Q. Jones) and Scoby (Dennis Fimple).
Winterhawk retaliates by kidnapping a pretty young woman named Clayann Finely (Dawn Wells) and her younger brother Cotton.
Uncle Will Finley (Elisha Cook Jr.), the man who was watching over the two, insists on tracking down the Blackfeet to get them back.
But they’ll need a guide to do that. So they turn to none other than Guthrie, Wintehawk’s friend, who reluctantly accepts the mission.
It’ll be quite the journey. Because Winterhawk is bound for Canada over treacherous terrain in winter snows.
Michael Dante as Winterhawk, mysterious chief of the Blackfoot tribe in Winterhawk (1976)
Dawn Wells as Clayanna Finley, defiant shortly after her capture by Winterhawk in Winterhawk (1975)
Review:
A great looking film from the same director who later brought us “Grayeagle,” another ode to Native Americans and story of a white woman’s capture.
But great photography can’t hide the film’s shortcomings. The principle one here is that the ending makes no damn sense and is given away early on because the story is being narrated by Clayanna Finley, the white capture who falls in love with Winterhawk.
Why? We’re told he’s mysterious, a man of great charisma and a great warrior. But we see little evidence of any of that.
We do hear Clayanna complain about the arduous journey, hunger, the brutal cold. Yet rather than return to the comfort of home, she decides to stay with a man with whom she can’t even communicate. Nothing that happens on screen justifies that outcome.
The good news is that Michael Dante does a better job of playing Winterhawk that Alex Cord would do two years later in the role of Grayeagle. And the cast is filled with Western vets who hold up their end when Pierce isn’t trying his hand at forced humor.
This marked Dawn Wells’ first role in a feature film after attaining stardom as Mary Anne on Gilligan’s Island (1964-67).
Leif Erickson as Guthrie, the man leading the expedition ro recapture the whites in Winterhawk (1975)
L.Q. Jones as Gates, the man behind most of the trouble in Winterhawk (1975)
Directed by:
Charles B. Pierce
Cast:
Leif Erickson … Guthrie
Woody Strode … Big Rude
Dever Pyle … Arkansas
L.Q. Jones … Gates
Elisha Cook Jr. … Uncle Will Finley
Seamon Glass … Big Smith
Dennis Fimple … Scoby
Arthur Hunnicutt … McClusky
Dawn Wells … Clayanna Finley/ Narrator
Chuck Pierce Jr. … Cotton Finley
Jimmy Clem … Little Smith
Sacheen Littlefeather … Pale Flower
Gilbert Lucero … Crow
Ace Powell … Red Calf
Michael
Dante … Winterhawk
Runtime: 98 min.
Denver Pyle as Arkansas, forced to shoot a friend in Winterhawk (1975)
Woody Strode as Big Rude, captured and being tortured by the Blackfoot party in Winterhawk (1975)
Memorable lines:
Uncle Will Finley, about his kidnapped niece: “Clayanna is a mature woman.”
Guthrie: “She ugly?”
Finley: “On the contrary.”
Guthrie: “Well, then, you got no problem. If Winterhawk don’t like here, some big buck will take a shine to her, make her his squaw.”
Finley: “You are an Indian lover!”
Guthrie: “That’s right.”
Scoby, when Guthrie catches up with he and Gates: “What are you gonna do with me?”
Guthrie: “I don’t know. But it’ll be something special.”
Elisha Cook Jr. as Finley in Winterhawk (1975)
Sacheen Littlefeather as Pale Flower issues a warning to her husband Guthries in Winterhawk (1975)
Dennis Fimple as Scoby, one of two men who ambush Winterhawk and his men in Winterhawk (1975)
Chuck Pierce Jr. as Cotton Finley, the kidnapped white boy in Winterhawk (1975)
Sacheen Littlefeather as Pale Flower, under attack by Gates (L.Q. Jones) in Winterhawk (1975)
Dawn Wells as Clayanna Finley, finding her life in the hands of a Blackfoot chief in Winterhawk (1975)
Michael Dante as Winterhawk, wanting to trade his captives for smallpox medicine in Winterhawk (1975)
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