Customer Reviews

The Last of the Mohicans [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many people -especially I suspect younger ones -will come to this movie after the lavish Michael Mann version of the book that came out in the early nineties and starred Daniel Day -Lewis .They may find this more modest 1936 black and white picture a bit quaint by contrast but for my money it is an exciting and crisply made movie in its own right.
Randolph Scott stars as Hawkeye ,who escorts the stiff but gallant British officer Duncan Heyward and the two daughters of the regimental colonel ,Alice and Cora ,through the woods to Fort William Henry.They are accompanied by Chingachgook and his son Uncas ,sole surviving members of the Mohican tribe ,and are harried constantly by Magwa ,avicuous and depraved Huron who is allied with the French against the British.
On making it to the Fort it is promptly besieged by the Franco-Huron army and the women captured .Once again the heroes must track them down and rescue them from the clutches of the Huron.

The performances are solid -Scott is a rugged hero and Wilcoxon plays Heyward on the just the right note of stiff upper lip gallantry while Bruce Cabot is a menacing and suitably thuggish villain
Shot in the High Sierras by the cinematographer Robert Planck the movie looks good and moves crisply with some lively scenes of siege and woodland combat

The script intelligently anticipates the war of Independence -a little over a decade away -by emphasising the desire of the "colonials"for self determination in miltary matters .

The casting of white actors as Naative Americans makes for uneasy viewing in patches but that is the only real drawback in a lively movie

The Last Of The Mohicans [1936]
I missed this item on Laserdisc as it was deleted when I went to order it. However, I viewed with interest the DVD Special Edition from a distributor I had not heard of before. I ordered and although it is not bad the quality is far below what i would have expected which is why I would give it a low rating. As a film it is fine but then I am biased as I like Randolph Scott films. By all means buy it if Scott and esterns from the 1930s are your bag but don't expect top quality like a Warner Bros restoration. This brings me to price which is too high under the circumstances when a topnotch Warner or Fox restoration can often be had for under US$10 if one searches properly.

That's the fate awaiting Cora and Alice Munro (Binnie Barners and Heather Angel) if they're not rescued by Hawkeye (Randolph Scott) and Major Duncan Heywood (Henry Wilcoxin) first. This is a very enjoyable adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's classic about the French and Indian War and the clashes between colonials and British foreshadowing the Revolution to come. British Duncan's stiff regulations and refusal to understand his environment contrast with American Hawkeye's common sense approach to life and survival. Yet both must work together if the French and the Huron are to be staved off and the women brought safely to shelter at Fort William Henry. Wilcoxin is a much better actor than Scott, so the movie is easily his. While his politics are wrong by colonial standards, he nevertheless is brave, performing more acts of courage than Scott's Hawkeye, actually. My other favorite actors are the girls' father Colonel Munro and the French marquise and his aide. The aide especially makes the most of a rather small part, as when he opens a dispatch with a great flourish. Bruce Cabot plays Magua, the evil Mohawk Indian--he's a veteran of "King Kong" as is composer Max Steiner, who "borrows" some of his own score from that 1933 movie for a thrilling canoe chase. Downside: Sorry to say that I haven't read the novel, so I can't be sure, but it seems to me that the Mohicans themselves don't get much play in this version. Uncas is lovesick, period, for Alice, while Chingachcook generally scowls and makes a comment about beavers or some such. Enlist some of your friends to watch this fast-paced adventure classic with you sometime soon--you'll be glad you did.

My 6 year old French-speaking son loves to watch most of this black and white film in English with his 44 year old daddy.
The 2 of us have a great time on the sofa savouring the pursuits (there's a wonderful canoe pursuit by the way), the attacks and even the love scenes.
It's possible to enjoy this version even better than the 1992 version.
A family delight !
(The 1920 silent version is very good too but more terrifying)

The excellent review by F.J. Harvey sums up what I intended to address regarding this film. For me, it is much more enjoyable than the 1993 Daniel Day Lewis film although that movie was by no means poorly done. I am always impressed by screenplays that successfully present a lot of information and are able to tell the story all in a relatively brief running time. Historical adventures of the 1930s, in American cinema, usually appear as novels come-to-life. The camera angles, costumes, lighting, black and white photography, etc. all come together in a way that suggests illustrations found in book editions of the late 19th and early 20th century. This 1936 version of "The Last of the Mohicans" is one of these movies, and I highly recommend it as viewing especially during the holiday season.

Sorry this just isn't what I'd hoped for. I got this on VHS a long time ago and then upgraded to laserdisc. While a great inprovement, the LD was still washed out and just passable to watch. Although I know getting pristine elements would be slim to none I never expected this transfer to be on par with my old VHS. Quite a disapointment. If anything it should have been taken from the LD. What is even more surprising is when I saw TCM was playing it, I took a chance and TIVO'ed it and their print is cleaner than any of my versions! So...I recorded it to my Toshiba RD-XS34, burned a DVD, and replaced Movieology's with it. No I didn't throw their DVD out ('tho the thought crossed my mind) but I won't watch it again.

If you check Amazon.uk, Movieology is making a big deal out of releasing B movie horror classics in widescreen remastered versions. Why not go all the way for every release? Achor Bay and Blue Underground made their reputations on DVD, Image and Roan on Laserdisc were the same. I'm not saying it has to be the best, but why settle for the worst? Now I am a big Randolph Scott fan and this movie is a must have, as far as I'm concerned, but it really didn't scream to be released without checking for a better source. Seriously, this is not on any list or petition.

While I'm grateful an effort is made to release classics that are out of print or have never been released on home video, I feel some care should be taken to ensure a decent product to the niche audience this appeals to. This gets a reluctant 2 star just because fans will need this in their collection.

Having first viewed this film as a youngster I cannot forget how captivated I was (and to some degree, still am) at the sheer pleasure of being transported back to our country's earliest days....despite a strong British foothold on the continent, the land remained raw, majestic and foreboding. Add the elements of a simmering conflict between the two historical superpowers at this time (France and Britain), mix in two waring Indian tribes (the Mohawks and Mohicans), two vulnerable females (the Colonel's daughters), a dashing frontiersman (Hawkeye), a staid British Major, spectacular outdoor locations and the inevitable romantic entanglements you have the ingredients of classic Hollywood cinema.
The 1990's remake was in itself bold and beautifully filmed; I kept comparing Daniel Day Lewis to Randolph Scott's portrayal of Hawkeye and remember Scott being more handsome and romantic with a touch of backwoods common sense; Major Duncan was best portrayed by the great character actor Henry Wilcoxon (a favorite of Cecil B. DeMille) I cannot recall the chap who was cast in Michael Mann's version; Chinghackook was more realistic with Mann's casting of American Indian Activist Russell Means and Wes Studi as the devilish Magua-now with this having been said I still recall being frightened by the sheer evilness of Bruce Cabot's Magua and his limited but effective lines in the script (albeit cliche ridden which was common for the time). The battle scenes from the original were realistically staged and nicely shot given the claustrophobic quarters of an inside stage; the horror and chaos of close-quarter combat aptly portrayed in black and white celluloid; Michael Mann probably spent significantly more, had special effects not even dreamed in 1936; in short both films were handsomely shot and each outstanding in various cinematic venues. I, however, will remain true to my boyhood remembrances....I was fortunate enough to make a DVD copy from a late-nite classic movie channel and find myself popping this RKO jewel into the magic box....yes, for a few brief moments I can once again be shouldering my flintlock, adjusting my longknife in its sheath and quietly heading off to parts unknown..........

For those who come to the 1936 version of THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS after having read the novel by James Fenimore Cooper will soon discover that this black and white version is fundamentally sharing the same vision of America that enthralled frontier America in the 1840s. America at that time was a seemingly endless megafauna of forest, wildlife, rampaging Indians, settlers, and constant battle between the French and British. This version directed by George Seitz takes some minor liberties with the plot but retains the essentials of the book: beautiful but simpering women taken hostage by lusting Indians, fierce attempts by the hero Hawkeye (Randolph Scott) to free them, vicious battles between troops and Indians, a bravura performance by the villianous Magua (Bruce Cabot), and ultimately more than a few hints that the relationship between the red man and white man need not be limited to savagery. Uncas the son of Chingachgook is selfless in his love for Alice the daughter of the British commander of Fort William Henry. There is, however, an unfortunate tendency to portray Indians as little more than bloodthirsty and mindless brutes all of whom were clearly white actors sporting Mohican style haircuts. Still, what one takes away from THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS is a faithful approximation of a country that was only a few decades away from yet another cataclysmic struggle between the desire of Americans for freedom and an equally powerful desire by the British to deny them that freedom. James Fenimore Cooper both in his book and in this film by Seitz allow the viewer to experience how injustice heaped on one race can lead to injustice heaped on another.

My reason for writing this comment is to agree with the other reviewers that this classic movie version of a seminal piece of American Literature should be remastered and published in DVD format. I own a colorized VHS tape of this movie, but every time I play it I'm afraid it may get damaged! The writers who adapted Cooper's novel to the screen and Randolph Scott's masterful protrayal of the character of Hawkeye deserve to be resurrected from the oblivion in which it has languished for too many years!

I love Randolph Scott in this role. The movie is superior to Daniel Day Lewis' modern version. The problem with the film is the quality is choppy in a couple of places where the Master film was eroded and apparently spliced.

I rated this 4 star based on the Mater film's condition not the quality of the acting, directing and the movie itself. They need to get a better Master film and digitally restore it and put onto a DVD. I would pay triple for such a quality DVD production.