''The Scalphunters'' is a 1968 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 starring Burt Lancaster,

Ossie Davis Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP ...

and

Telly Savalas Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer whose career spanned four decades. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on th ...

. The film was directed by Sydney Pollack, with the score written by Elmer Bernstein. Davis was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film. Filming took place in Sierra de Órganos National Park in the town of

Sombrerete Sombrerete () is a town and municipality located in the northwest of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, bordering the state of Durango. It was founded in 1555 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Tolosa as a mining center, due to the wealth that the mine ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Plot

Joe Bass ( Burt Lancaster), an American fur trapper, is on his way to sell the hides he has amassed over the winter. He encounters a group of

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

Indians led by Two Crows (

Armando Silvestre Armando Silvestre Carrascosa (born January 28, 1926) is a Mexican-American actor. Life and career Silvestre was born on January 28, 1926 in San Diego, California, but he is originally from Tijuana, Mexico. He dropped out of college in order to ...

), who take his furs. In exchange, they give a disgusted Bass a slave, Joseph Lee (

), whom they had previously taken from a group of Comanches. Lee is a well-educated and refined house slave, unfamiliar with the ways of the wilderness. Bass sets out to recover the furs from the Kiowa. Lee makes an unsuccessful attempt to escape, then follows along. As Lee and Bass catch up to the Kiowa, they watch them being ambushed by a group of scalphunters, after the bounty offered by the government for each Native American scalp they bring in. The scalphunters, led by Jim Howie (

), kill the Kiowas and take Bass's furs. Bass and Lee trail the new group. Lee stumbles over a cliff and is captured by the scalphunters. Howie decides to sell him in Galveston, Texas. As they travel southwards, Jim Howie's girlfriend, Kate (

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch o ...

), reveals to Lee that they are heading for

. He begins to win her favor, by doing her hair and telling her fortune, hoping she will persuade Howie to take him with them to Mexico (where slavery is illegal), rather than sell him. Bass pins them down with sniper fire, forcing them to let loose the packhorse carrying the furs. He is ambushed, however, and the scalphunters recover the furs and proceed on their way. Approaching their camp at night, Bass tries to persuade Lee to help him, but the slave is now set on going to Mexico and refuses him assistance. Bass kills several of the scalphunters by starting a rock slide in the mountains. Then he contaminates the water of a nearby creek with

locoweed Locoweed (also crazyweed and loco) is a common name in North America for any plant that produces swainsonine, a phytotoxin harmful to livestock. Worldwide, swainsonine is produced by a small number of species, most of them in three genera of the f ...

, a toxic plant that causes the scalphunters' horses to run and buck wildly after they drink the water. They send Lee as a go-between to Bass, telling him he can keep the furs. A wary Bass comes down to collect the lone packhorse, but is ambushed by Howie. In an ensuing struggle, Howie is shot dead by Lee. The bickering Bass and Lee then fight, but neither can beat the other. Meanwhile, Kiowas attack and overrun the scalphunters. Two Crows, who had survived the earlier massacre, has fetched reinforcements. He takes back the furs. Bass and Lee, now friends, prepare to follow the Kiowas to take back the furs.

Cast

* Burt Lancaster – Joe Bass *

– Kate *

– Jim Howie *

– Joseph Lee *

Dabney Coleman Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. Coleman's best known films include ''9 to 5'' (1980), '' On Golden Pond'' (1981), ''Tootsie'' (1982), '' WarGames'' (1983), '' Cloak & Dagger'' (1984), ''The Beverly Hillbillies ...

– Jed *

Paul Picerni Horacio Paul Picerni (December 1, 1922 – January 12, 2011) was an American actor in film and television, perhaps best known today in the role of Federal Agent Lee Hobson, second-in-command to Robert Stack's Eliot Ness, in the ABC hit televisi ...

– Frank *

Dan Vadis Dan Vadis (born Constantine Daniel Vafiadis, 3 January 1938 – 11 June 1987) was an American actor famous for his lead roles in many Italian films made in the 1960s. Biography Vadis was of Greek descent, with lineage tracing back to the isl ...

– Yuma *

– Two Crows *

Nick Cravat Nicholas Cuccia (pronounced ''coo-cha''; January 10, 1912 – January 29, 1994), better known by his stage name Nick Cravat, was an American actor and stunt performer. Early life Nicholas Cuccia was born in Manhattan, New York City. His real ...

– Yancy

Novelization

Shortly before the release of the film, per the timing custom of the era,

Gold Medal Books Gold Medal Books, launched by Fawcett Publications in 1950, was an American book publisher known for introducing paperback originals, a publishing innovation at the time. Fawcett was also an independent newsstand distributor, and in 1949 the c ...

published a novelization of the screenplay by veteran pulpsmith Richard Wormser as "Ed Friend" (a pseudonym he employed for most of his media tie-in work). It qualifies as an "inferred novelization" as the source screenplay is not directly credited as the basis, though the copyright is assigned to Norland Productions and Bristol Pictures—and the film is referenced on the front and back covers of the first edition. ''The Scalp-Hunters'' was not the only Gold Medal novelization of the era to tacitly disguise itself as a novel original to its author, and thus the basis for the film—and in this case, the strategy seems to have paid off; the book stayed in print well beyond the theatrical run of the movie: Future editions of the book (there was a second printing and a re-release about a decade later) eschewed mention of the film altogether.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scalphunters, The 1968 films 1968 Western (genre) films 1960s English-language films American Western (genre) films Films directed by Sydney Pollack Films produced by Burt Lancaster Films scored by Elmer Bernstein Films shot in Mexico United Artists films 1960s American films