Daniel Boone

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.

A well-crafted script efficiently sets up three areas of conflict: white settlers in 1775 Kentucky vs. local Indians stirred up by a renegade named Simon Girty; these same white settlers vs. corrupt officials back in Richmond; and he-man Daniel Boone vs. fancy-man Stephen Marlowe for the affections of the beautiful Virginia Randolph. These conflicts are woven together into a briskly-paced frontier drama which, while showing its age, still holds one's interest. Its chief fault is an ending which, at least on the tape available, seems unfocused and a bit confusing.

Though not well remembered today, leading man George O'Brien was a popular actor in late silents and early talkies. During a fight scene in 1924's "The Iron Horse" his shirt was torn off and audiences got an uncommon eyeful of "beefcake" which earned for O'Brien a nickname: the Chest. Though only 35 or 36 years old when he filmed "Daniel Boone," O'Brien shows signs of middle-age in the form of a somewhat expanded waistline but he's still featured in an extended "beefcake" scene. Captured by Indians he's tied, shirtless, to a post and soon surrounded by burning piles of wood. His bindings allow him to move in a tight circle around the post, (an authentic touch), so O'Brien sweats and squirms as he tries to avoid the tongues of flame. It's a good scene but cut far too short by an all-too-easy rescue. (A shirtless O'Brien also suffered through a prison flogging in 1928's "Honor Bound" but prints of this movie seem to be unavailable.)

John Carradine makes a hissable villain and Heather Angel is an appropriately pretty heroine but Ralph Forbes seems a bit "too, too" as the no-good Stephen Marlowe. No woman would regard him as a serious competitor for George O'Brien! Black actor Clarence Muse has a role surprisingly free of most of the era's usual stereotypes.

1936's "Daniel Boone" benefits from the casting of George O'Brien in the title role, still a few years away from retirement. An accurate portrait of the rigors of life on the Kentucky frontier, complicated by omnipresent evildoer Simon Girty (John Carradine), leading a band of renegade Indians that indulge in murder and rape. Also conducting villainy from a safe distance is prissy British aristocrat Stephen Marlowe (Ralph Forbes), supported by the Virginia legislature in confiscating the land built up by Boone's people. Love interest is provided by Heather Angel, solid support from George Regas and Clarence Muse. Later appearing as a murderer on the 60s teleseries DANIEL BOONE ("The Witness"), Carradine, on loan from Fox, excels in one of his flashier villain roles; too bad the picture sags a bit when he's off screen too long (he appropriately wears a skunk-skin cap, as opposed to Boone's traditional coonskin).