''The Deerslayer'' is a 1957 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

and Color by De Luxe, directed by Kurt Neumann and written by Carroll Young, Neumann and an uncredited

Dalton Trumbo James Dalton Trumbo (December 9, 1905 – September 10, 1976) was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including ''Roman Holiday'' (1953), ''Exodus'', ''Spartacus'' (both 1960), and ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944) ...

. The film stars

Lex Barker Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. (May 8, 1919 – May 11, 1973), known as Lex Barker, was an American actor. He was known for playing Tarzan for RKO Pictures between 1949 and 1953, and portraying leading characters from Karl May's novels, notably as ...

Rita Moreno Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Noted for her work across different areas of the entertainment industry, she has appeared in numerous film, television, and thea ...

Forrest Tucker Forrest Meredith Tucker (February 12, 1919 – October 25, 1986) was an American actor in both movies and television who appeared in nearly a hundred films. Tucker worked as a vaudeville straight man at the age of fifteen. A mentor provided fund ...

Cathy O'Donnell Cathy O'Donnell (born Ann Steely, July 6, 1923 – April 11, 1970) was an American actor who appeared in ''The Best Years of Our Lives,'' '' Ben-Hur,'' and films noir such as ''Detective Story'' and '' They Live by Night''. Early life O'Do ...

Jay C. Flippen Jay C. Flippen (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Before his motion-picture career he was a leading va ...

and Carlos Rivas. It is based on the 1841 novel ''

The Deerslayer ''The Deerslayer, or The First War-Path'' (1841) was James Fenimore Cooper's last novel in his ''Leatherstocking Tales''. Its 1740–1745 time period makes it the first installment chronologically and in the lifetime of the hero of the Leathers ...

'' by

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

. The film was released on September 10, 1957 by

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

Plot

Frontiersman Deerslayer and his Mohican blood brother Chingachgook are attacked by a scout for a

Huron Huron may refer to: People * Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America * Wyandot language, spoken by them * Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec * Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...

war party. Dispatching the Huron, they hear war cries from the river and help white trader Harry March, who is being chased by the war party in

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

s. Deerslayer and Chingachgook, cannot understand why the Hurons have gone on the warpath so far west of the white settlements. Harry tells them that he is making for a floating fort moored in the middle of Lake Otsego, on which old Tom Hutter and his two daughters, Judith and Hetty, live. Harry needs the help of Deerslayer and Chingachgook to deliver the girls to safety in Albany. When they arrive at the fort, Deerslayer and Chingachgook offer their help because a band of Hurons is coming down the river, but they are shunned by Tom, who knows why the Hurons are about to attack but is also trying to hide a sinister secret.

Cast

as Deerslayer *

as Hetty Hutter *

as Harry March *

as Judith Hutter *

as Old Tom Hutter * Carlos Rivas as Chingachgook *Joseph Vitale as Huron chief *John Halloran as Old Warrior

References

External links

* 1957 films 20th Century Fox films CinemaScope films American Western (genre) films 1957 Western (genre) films Films based on works by James Fenimore Cooper Films directed by Kurt Neumann Films set in the 1740s American historical adventure films 1950s historical adventure films Films scored by Paul Sawtell 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{adventure-film-stub