Battles of Chief Pontiac

1952's "Battles of Chief Pontiac" was a low budget Western from Realart, a redistribution outfit that produced several titles of their own, but are best remembered for keeping Universal Horror in cinemas right up to the 1957 TV debut of Shock Theater. This was their third and last from Lon Chaney, following successful turns in "Bride of the Gorilla" and "The Bushwhackers," here playing the title role of Chief Pontiac, third billed behind Lex Barker and Helen Westcott. Still the current Tarzan, the well cast Barker seeks peace between the Indians and the colonists in pre-Revolutionary War America, filmed on location in Rapid City, South Dakota. Usually cast as Western villains or thug henchmen, Chaney retains great dignity and compassion in this rare change of pace, which may have played a part in his later series HAWKEYE AND THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, where he portrayed Chingachgook. Those familiar with "Of Mice and Men" or even "The Wolf Man" remember how Chaney could excel in sympathetic roles, and here he delivers the goods, though slightly, and understandably, overshadowed by Barker's heroics. Berry Kroeger's evil Hessian Von Weber deserves special mention, and his shocking fate in the fitting hands of Chief Pontiac is punishment well deserved.

With a bow to James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, this independent production purports to tell the story of the Pontiac Indian Confederacy or at least a small portion thereof. It's an extremely complex subject that not even the historians specializing in colonial America have ever really sorted it all out.

For one thing it wasn't one war, but a series of them from 1763 to 1769 involving the Indians and white settlers ever pushing over the Appalachian mountains. Chief Pontiac was a leader of one of the tribes against the whites, but he was a charismatic kind of leader and as a result his name dominates the era.

One of the most horrific examples of barbaric cruelty to the Indians came from his war when one of Lord Jeffery Amherst's commanders at Amherst's suggestion gave infected blankets used in a smallpox epidemic. The disease decimated the local Indian population, but it was only one incident terrible as it was and it happened at Fort Pitt, not at Fort Detroit where Pontiac was operating.

And World War II provided a stock villain. Berry Kroeger was a cruder version of the kind of roles George MacReady played and Kroeger did play many a Nazi. He's a Nazi like figure commanding Hessian mercenaries fighting for the British. From World War II on, the cinema was filled with hateful German villains and Kroeger is in the Erich Von Stroheim tradition of a Hun you love to hate.

The leads in this film are Lex Barker as a Natty Bumppo type frontiersman and Helen Westcott whom he rescues from captivity. Lon Chaney, Jr. gives a restrained and dignified portrayal of Chief Pontiac. But it's Kroeger on whom the picture really turns.

Battles Of Chief Pontiac is in the tradition of Broken Arrow, Fort Apache, and Devil's Doorway as American cinema discovered sympathy for the Indian albeit it's set in an earlier era. Too bad it just isn't as good or as accurate as those other three classics.

Lon Chaney Jr plays Chief Pontiac. A real man in history. This film shows the Native American history in the right light - sensitive to them while showing the brutality of "white man". The disagreements, peace talks, diseases, Native American way of life etc.. are all shown in this one film. The story is a good one.

The movie may not be 100% accurate to real history - I know it isn't - but it tries to it in a favorable light and they succeeded in my book.

Chaney is good - I realize that not everyone will agree but he has played Native American roles before and has always given a sincere performance.

8/10

A surprisingly accurate, low budget, historical drama. The story of a white scout(Barker)attempting to broker a peace agreement between English Colonials and Chief Pontiac and his Ottawa tribe. Kroeger is loathsome as German Hesian mercenary, and Chaney brings his best to the role of Pontiac. The "gifts" of small-pox infected blankets to the Indians is a reminder of the brutality of the times. A good cast performs well, and of course Barker, a former Tarzan, finds several chances to bare his chest! While this one was made on a small budget by the Jack Broder Company,it has held up well over the years. This is a hard one to find on video or TV but well worth watching.

This film was produced by a very small video studio and I am having a very hard time finding a copy of the video in any format. Lon Chaney Jr. had the leading role as Chief Pontiac in this exquisite movie. It was one of his best, most sensitive performances. Chief Pontiac was in real life an influential Native American chief who affected the course of history of the native people on the Canadian border and Lon Chaney Jr. did a great job staying close to the documented history of this Native American tribe.