On 5/1/36 "The Triplicate" reported that a camera crew showed up in Crescent City and Smith River to undertake the preparations for filming an adaption of "The Last of the Mohicans" using Yurok, Hoopa and Tolowa extras. Tolowas and mixed-Tolowas hired on as extras included Clifford Winton, Harry Bob, Fred Moorehead, William White, Andrew Whipple, Chester Scott, Johnny Frank, Chester James, Robert Spott, Lawrence Spott, Edward Spott and Jack James. They were paid $5.00 a day. The federal government arranged the pay scale for the reservation Indians who had acted as extras.
For several years, the Oscars included a category for Best Assistant Director. Clem Beauchamp received such a nomination for his work on this movie.
The film takes place in 1757.
The scene in which a bare-chested Randolph Scott is tied to a torture-stake inside an Indian village does not appear in James Fenimore Cooper's novel.
This movie features two alumni from King Kong (1933): Bruce Cabot, who plays Magua, (and played John Driscoll in "King Kong") and parts of the King Kong music score by Max Steiner, which can most easily be heard during the action sequences.