Rasgando Horizontes

Daniel Boone had a long and fascinating life and he's still the prototype for those classic American frontier characters. He set a standard which people in later generations like Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and Buffalo Bill were measured by. His life would warrant a mini-series.

Any resemblance to that life and the film Daniel Boone which was RKO films big budget item for 1936 is purely coincidental. They don't even get the name of his wife in the character Heather Angel plays right.

I will say that George O'Brien does make an impressive looking Daniel Boone and it's definitely in the tradition of a hero for the kiddie trade. This colonial era film plays like a western, but even the great Cecil B. DeMille made some of the same mistakes with his big budget epic Unconquered that starred Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard and was set in the same era.

Another and more infamous colonial frontier character makes an appearance in Daniel Boone. John Carradine plays a lean and mean Simon Girty and his performance here might have led John Ford to cast him in a similar role in Drums Along The Mohawk.

Girty may have been one of the first diagnosed cases of Stockholm syndrome. As a kid he was captured by the Indians and adapted so well to their lifestyle that he sympathized with them and their cause the rest of his life. He sided with the Tories during the American Revolution so he's come down to us as a renegade and traitor.

But as far as I know he and Daniel Boone never even met, let alone become antagonists. Simon Girty lived almost as long as Daniel Boone. Girty died in 1818 at his farm in Ontario, Canada where he's not exactly a hero, but doesn't have the bad reputation he has on this side of the Great Lakes. Boone of course died in 1820 and the action here takes place in the 1770s.

The film might have been better had one of the bigger studios done it. Daniel Boone was a project for MGM or Warner Brothers not RKO Pictures.

The picture deals as the title says about Daniel Boone (George O'Brien) , as famous scout , he leads some settler families towards Kentucky state ; meanwhile , he falls in love with a beautiful colonist (Heather Angel) facing off her suitor (Ralph Forbes) . Besides , he'll confront Indians led by a nasty villain (John Carradine) , risks and numerous perils.

The film is based on real events , this is as follows : In 1775, after mediating the purchase of 20 million acres of Kentucky Cherokee land,which was about to be opened to white settlers as the 14th colony,Transylvania,the 40 years old Boone(1734-1820,dead at the age of 85) led colonials to blaze trail. Driving northward from Tenessee through the Cumberland Gap to the Kentucky River,they cleared the famous Wilderness Road,which ended at a settlement on the Kentucky, they called Boonesborough in honor to his name. Daniel Boone as militia leader charged with directing the defense of Kentucky's frontier settlements against Indian attacks and stalled a raid on defenseless women and children left in Boonesboro. Captured by Shawnees and after escaping,Boone reached the settlement in time to help fight off Indian attack and his legend grew to epic proportions and would gain an inflated reputation as Indian fighter ,learning his wilderness skills from friendly Native Americans whose ways he respected and understood. In fact,the myths about Boone's prowess abounded and multiplied even in his own time,but in true,Boone never relished fighting Native Americans and may have killed only one Indian during his entire career and contrary to myth he never wore a coonskin cap .His greatest legacy is,perhaps,his undying legend as the first trail-brazer of America's advance to the West coast.

The motion picture packs adventures , battles and action , though it's a little bit outdated because of being an early talkie the film-copy is worn-out. The flick will appeal to old movies buffs and frontier western enthusiasts.

Daniel Boone (1936)

** (out of 4)

RKO film about Daniel Boone (George O'Brien) leading settlers from North Carolina to Kentucky while fighting a crazed white man (John Carradine) who's in good with deadly Indians. This adventure story is okay but it's certainly hampered by its low budget, which makes for a pretty dry story. When the action does kick in its way too late to save the film. O'Brien is good but Carradine steals the show even though he's chewing his way through each scene.

This movie is available through countless public domain labels.

This genre includes "The Ten Commandments" and "Brigham Young". It's the strong and righteous man leading his people into a promised land. We've got a brave and good-looking Daniel Boone, portrayed by a handsome actor named George O'Brien. (The injuns strip his shirt off and tie him to a stake for a while, so we even get to see some skin.)

The villain is John Caradine portraying Simon Girty, a white man who leads the indians in attacking the settlers. There's also a noble black man, apparently someone's slave, who names the town (Boonesburg) and heroically goes off into the woods to follow his 10-year-old charge.

The best scenes have Daniel confronting pompous authorities. The very place where Boone chooses to settle has already been claimed by another, and Virginia (which claimed the territory of "Cain-Tuck-Ee" at the time) backs up this prior claim. Boone gets one good punch in, then accepts the law as final. Boonesburg seeks other territory to establish a community.

The version of the video that I rented is put out by VCI Home Video, and the box is nothing like the one depicted herein. It's really not a kid's movie, as the Good Housekeeping box seems to depict.

Anyway, it's a pretty entertaining flick.

George O'Brien swaps his usual cowboy gear for a coonskin cap to play Daniel Boone. It's an "eastern western", as he leads a wagon train over the Appalachian Mountains to found a settlement in Kentucky. In the course of the movie, he must court Heather Angel, deal with vengeful and effete Ralph Forbes, escape from Indians who want to burn him alive, under the command of renegade John Carradine, and an attack of the settlement.

It's a well done B under the direction of David Howard, with some lovely compositions by cinematographer Frank Good. In story terms, it hearkens back to LAST OF THE MOHICANS, with a faithful, if brutal Indian companion, played by George Regas. Modern viewers may be upset by scene-stealing Clarence Muse, playing a slave; he does so with enormous dignity. For fans of Mr. O'Brien, it will be a delight.