Les chasseurs de scalps

Original title: The Scalphunters

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

4.8K

YOUR RATING

Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Telly Savalas, and Shelley Winters in Les chasseurs de scalps (1968)

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.

Play trailer3:14

1 Video

78 Photos

Classical Western Parody Satire Slapstick Comedy Drama Western

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

4.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations total

Videos1

Trailer 3:14

Official Trailer

Photos78

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Storyline

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Trivia
Burt Lancaster had met Ossie Davis on the historic Martin Luther King "Civil Rights March on Washington" on Aug. 28, 1963. This chance meeting led to the talented Davis being cast as "Joseph Winfield Lee", the runaway slave who uses his clever, resourceful ways to manipulate fur trapper "Joe Bass" (Lancaster) in the film. Lancaster also stated that first time screenwriter William W. Norton submitted such a unique, clever script, that he just had to do the film.

Goofs
Set in 1860, Joseph mentions the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930.

Quotes
Joseph Lee: [walking behind Joe Bass and his horse] What about me, sir?
Joe Bass: I'll just sell you to the highest bidder.
Joseph Lee: Could you mske that to a Comanche, sir?
Joe Bass: You seem to have an uncommon prejudice against service to the white-skinned race!
Joseph Lee: I don't mean to be narrow in my attitude. Could I ask you what's your name, sir?
Joe Bass: Joe Bass.
Joseph Lee: Well, Mr. Bass, couldn't you kind of consider me a captured Comanche?
Joe Bass: [both Joe Bass and his horse turn around and do a 'take']
Joseph Lee: I came on my own two feet as far as those Comanches. It was my intent to circle south as far as Mexico. The Mexicans have a law against the slavery trade, and since those Indians captured me from other Indians. I have now got full Indian citizenship.
Joe Bass: Joseph Lee, you ever study the law?
Joseph Lee: No, sir.
Joe Bass: Well, neither did I, but you ain't got a chance in hell of calling yerself an Indian! You're an African slave by employment, black by color!

Connections
Featured in Film Review: Burt Lancaster (1968)

Soundtracks
In Our Lovely Deseret
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Eliza R. Snow
Music by George Frederick Root
Performed by Shelley Winters

User reviews56

Featured review

6/10

Amusing late 60s Western with Lancaster, Ossie Davis and Savalas

A rugged trapper (Burt Lancaster) is forced by a band of Kiowas to trade his valuable furs for an educated runaway slave (Ossie Davis). To get the furs back, they follow the Indians and, then, a band of scalphunters, led by a boisterous bald guy (Telly Savalas). Shelley Winters is also on hand.

What's notable about "The Scalphunters" (1968), besides the cast, is that the entire story takes place in the Southwest wilderness. There are no towns, buildings or teepees in sight. But there's some gorgeous location photography.

While there are entertaining comedic bits, don't expect anything outrageous like "Blazing Saddles" (1974). This is more in the mode of contemporaneous Westerns like "Bandoleros" (1968), "The War Wagon" (1967) and "The Undefeated" (1969). It's not as great as the first or as good as the second, but it's about on par with the latter.

The film runs 1 hour and 42 minutes and was shot in Arizona (Quartzsite, Parker & Harquahala Mountains) and Mexico (Barranca del Cobre, Chihuahua, Durango & Sierra de Organos).

GRADE: B-