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MOTION PICTURE HERALD
July 18, 1936
"MOHICANS" AN AMERICAN
J ^ AMES FENIMORE COOPER'S "The Last of the Mohicans," a blend of historical fact and imaginative fiction, has endured as a classic of early America. Entertaining as the novel is in the printed original, it does not lend itself readily to adaptation for screen purposes. As a matter of fact, neither did "The Count of Monte Cristo," which the same organization produced with more than usual success, look any too promising when preliminary work was begun. "The Last of the Mohicans" was produced once before, about fifteen years ago, and it is not recalled that its release worked any great motion picture miracle.
But an inspection of this production reveals many interesting facts. During the many months the story was in preparation, the large group of writers employed by Reliance advised that the job of translating Cooper's narrative to script form would not be simple. They were instructed to make an intensive study of the characters and incidents dealt with and shape them to screen realism in a manner that would accentuate in forceful, convincing fashion all the appeal of danger-menaced love interest, stark melodrama, stirring personal and martial conflict, suspense and action that make up the substance of the original.
The screen currently is glorifying many American characters. The ones heroized in this film, the Indians of New York State, Hurons and Mohicans, French and British colonial soldiers, the men and women who by their courage and sacrifice marked the first frontiers, familiar to all, carry a universal appeal. The story, generally known, needs no detailing. Necessarily condensed, yet embracing all the qualities that have made excellent reading, it is romance drama told against the realism of FrenchIndian-British warfare. Two white girls are hurled by circumstance into the fury of savage warfare. They are protected by scout Hawkeye and his Indian friends, Chincochook and Uncus, and menaced by the treacherous Magua. One finds death in the wilderness, the other love in the heart of Hawkeye.
The producers have let it be understood that they consider the story a matter of more importance than any cast they could procure to interpret it. Naturally they would have been pleased if they could have had a lot of sure-fire box office stars in it. Yet they went about making their cast selections with the same care that marked the story's preparation. The girls in the story, Alice and Cora, were English. They are being portrayed by two English actresses, Binnie Barnes and Heather Angel, who met with success in British films prior to coming to America. Their father is the English Henry Wilcoxon. Likewise the British colonial, Colonel Munro, is played by an Englishman, Hugh Buckler. The American scout, Hawkeye, is played by a typical American, Randolph Scott. Indians