La piste des Iroquois

Hawkeye, an American scout, helps the British side in the French and Indian War, aided by his Indian blood brother Sagamore.

This is one of Phil Karlson's early westerns, and as expected it's a nifty piece of work that balance politics, drama and action adeptly. The location is utilised greatly in this colonial adventure. The camera is great, zooming in close to the face and the violence is gritty. It's an entertaining film with a grand finale, a canoe chase and rousing knife fight between Hawkeye and the main villain. George Montgomery make a great Hawkeye and Brenda Marshall sizzles as his lady love.

Although set during the French and Indian War, this suspenceful, fast and violent film is fuelled by strick Film Noir. An innocent man falls deeper into a web of deceit and danger trying to prove his innocence. Director Phil Karlson weaves his powerful style of disturbing close ups, unique twists and turns, unflinching / sudden violence and claustrophobic realism with charactors from James Fennimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans". Colorful performances all around particularly from film heavy Sheldon Leonard as a rather sinister Native American Indian. Contains the magical quality that compels you to watch it every six months or so.

Only it is slightly different. We have 'Hawkeye' as played by George Montgomery and one daughter instead of 2 daughters being accompanied to camp by the treacherous Huron Indian. Sheldon Leonard takes on this baddie role as 'Ogane' instead of the more famous 'Magua'.

The film is ok but there are two 'Last of the Mohicans' films that are better - the 1936 version and the 1992 version. So............... watch those instead! This film is a bit complicated to follow and will lose you at the beginning stages. It is not made easy as everyone looks the same. They all wear wigs in the British army and it is confusing as to who is who and what is happening. The film comes across as a poor man's imitation of 'Last of the Mohicans' with one daughter instead of two daughters, and one Indian accomplice for Hawkeye instead of 2. The slight changes to the story take away from the effect of what we know is a better story.

There is a good knife fight when one hand of each of those involved are tied together and Sheldon is the standout character of the film. Unfortunately, Brenda Marshall (Marion) is a peculiar looking woman. She plays the daughter but looks like a middle-aged mother. There is also no way she is a source of desire for Leonard. It just doesn't ring true. I've seen her in another film - "The Sea Hawk" (1940) in which, again, she doesn't convince - there is something weird about her.

This film, does, however, contain the classic Indian greeting - "How". This is the only Indian word that absolutely everyone said at school when we were about 5 years old and I have never ever heard it spoken in a film. In TV comedy sketches, yes, but never in an actual film. So, we get an iconic moment when Leonard delivers this iconic word!

Watch 'Last of the Mohicans' for a more satisfying experience of this tale. It has a better story and ties things up more memorably rather than playing out as a happy families love story as in this effort.

I saw this film courtesy of Youtube and was quite impressed. Considering the presumably-small budget it compares well with other versions of "The Last of the Mohicans". It is pared down a bit: Hawkeye only has one Indian sidekick and there's only one daughter at risk from the rapacious Native Americans.

But the plot flows along nicely, the scenes of the besieged fort are adequate and a river chase with canoes is good.

But it did defy credulity that the daughter, "Marion Thorne", was allowed to try to get to the fort from comparative safety through hostile country escorted by one supposedly-trusted Indian, a British officer and a frontiersman and another Indian, the last two being unknown quantities to the British general.

In the version that I saw, there was a jump between the French commander Montcalm announcing that he would offer the British a truce and his men occupying the fort; the first that I knew that a truce had actually been agreed and implemented was when the Indians attacked the fort and overpowered the French guards.

George Montgomery and Brenda Marshall star in The Iroquois Trail which is taken and a quite watered down version of James Fenimore Cooper's Last Of The Mohicans. But Cooper fans will not see any of Cooper's ideas about the American Indian as noble savage here not his more daring theme of his time about interracial love. George Montgomery as Hawkeye and his faithful Indian companion Monte Blue are little more than a colonial version of The Lone Ranger and Tonto.

That being said there is a lot of action to satisfy any action film fan in this story set during the French and Indian War. Montgomery and Blue are on the trail of two traitorous skunks who shot his younger brother Don Garner who was riding dispatch for British commander Sir William Johnson played here by Paul Cavanaugh.

This was Brenda Marshall's last feature film as she settled into the role of being Mrs. William Holden raising their sons.

Sheldon Leonard is barely recognizable with shaved head and dialog that is Hollywood monosyllabic for Indian characters. In this case the better not to get his most urban speech pattern.

If you're an action fan you'll like this. But lovers of James Fenimore Cooper beware.