The Last of the Mohicans
About The Last of the Mohicans
In 1757, French troops and Huron allies close on Fort William Henry. Magua, played by Wallace Beery, leads Cora and Alice Munro off the road and then turns on them. Uncas, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye hide the sisters in a cave, lose them, and take them back. After Captain Randolph tells Montcalm that the rampart guns are useless, Munro surrenders, and the Hurons kill the column that was promised safe passage. Magua takes the sisters again. At a cliff he pries Cora's fingers loose and she falls. He stabs Uncas, who dies with his hand on hers. Hawkeye shoots Magua. Munro and Chingachgook bury Cora and Uncas, the last of the Mohicans.
Cast & crew
More about The Last of the Mohicans
Robert A. Dillon adapted James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 novel. Maurice Tourneur produced. Associated Producers distributed the film, Tourneur's first for that company. Clarence Brown, his assistant, finished the direction after Tourneur was injured in a fall. Copyright LP15837, 16 November 1920, claimant Maurice Tourneur. Six reels, silent, with English intertitles. Release 21 November 1920.
Themes
Background
The story is set in the French and Indian War, at Fort William Henry south of Lake George in 1757.
In film history
In 1995 the Library of Congress placed the film on the National Film Registry.
Making
Brown took over on the set after Tourneur's fall. The company worked near Big Bear Lake and in Yosemite Valley.
Reviews
Charles Higham wrote that Barbara Bedford's Cora, drawn to Uncas, is franker about desire than the women usually allowed in films of 1920. David Sterritt, comparing this version with adaptations from 1911, George B. Seitz's 1936 film, and Michael Mann's 1992 film, says the silent picture is hard to beat for visual storytelling and for the filmed climax.
Audiences
The film was well received when it opened.
Look
Charles Van Enger and Philip R. Du Bois shot the film in the San Bernardino Mountains and Yosemite, including the cliff ending.
Music
Arthur Kay is credited with the music for the silent film.
Preservation
Selected for the United States National Film Registry in 1995. A print circulates from the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Barbara Bedford plays Cora Munro and Alan Roscoe plays Uncas. They later married.
- Lillian Hall is Alice, Harry Lorraine is Hawkeye, Theodore Lorch is Chingachgook, and Henry Woodward is Major Heyward.
- The AFI catalog says modern sources give Boris Karloff a small part as a marauding Indian. Wikipedia lists him uncredited.
- James Gordon plays Colonel Munro, George Hackathorne Captain Randolph, and Nelson McDowell David Gamut.
Scenes
- Uncas and Hawkeye hide the Munro sisters in a cave while Magua's men close in.
- After the surrender, the Hurons attack the column leaving the fort.
- Magua forces Cora from the cliff, Uncas dies beside her, and Hawkeye shoots Magua.
Influenced by
- James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Also available
- Internet Archive (PublicdomainTheLastoftheMohicans)
