The white man here is represented by three types: Lex Barker as completely honorable (having been taken in by friendly Mohawks as a surrogate member of their tribe), Forrest Tucker who utilizes tough language and shows racist tendencies but accepts the natives who are fairly submissive, and Jay C. Flippen whose religious beliefs has him certain that all natives are savages and cannot be converted to Christianity. He reaps what he does, captured and tortured for information by the more seemingly wild Huron tribe whom the Mohawks according to this don't get on with. It doesn't matter that the Mohawks and Hurons are all part of the Iroquois tribe and speak the same language. According to this, the individual nations are either pacifist and hospitable or savage and unrelenting.
The sinister Flippen has two beautiful daughters, Cathy O'Donnell and Rita Moreno, with the later psychologically abused by her father. They don't seem to be all related, so the viewer suspects that Moreno may have a secret to her bloodline that she is unaware of. The script does try to humanize both tribes, although the Mohawks are only represented by Carlos Rivas who looks savage but is a kitten compared to how the Hurons are presented. Joseph Vitale as the Huron chief does get some revealing dialog that manages to humanize him. He's a gentleman in comparison to the bigoted hateful character that Flippen plays.
I'd love to see a restored full Cinemascope print of this that shows more of the upper New York State vistas. I may not have liked Flippen's character, but he had a great houseboat to live on, that's for sure. So while there are many dated elements of this "eastern", there are some aspects of it that do manage to give a sympathetic voice to the natives. The shot of Tucker carrying by himself a full cannon manages to garner some unintentional laughs. I may not have liked his character, but he is the most colorful of the three white men.
The sinister Flippen has two beautiful daughters, Cathy O'Donnell and Rita Moreno, with the later psychologically abused by her father. They don't seem to be all related, so the viewer suspects that Moreno may have a secret to her bloodline that she is unaware of. The script does try to humanize both tribes, although the Mohawks are only represented by Carlos Rivas who looks savage but is a kitten compared to how the Hurons are presented. Joseph Vitale as the Huron chief does get some revealing dialog that manages to humanize him. He's a gentleman in comparison to the bigoted hateful character that Flippen plays.
I'd love to see a restored full Cinemascope print of this that shows more of the upper New York State vistas. I may not have liked Flippen's character, but he had a great houseboat to live on, that's for sure. So while there are many dated elements of this "eastern", there are some aspects of it that do manage to give a sympathetic voice to the natives. The shot of Tucker carrying by himself a full cannon manages to garner some unintentional laughs. I may not have liked his character, but he is the most colorful of the three white men.