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.
Burt Lancaster
Joe Bass
Shelley Winters
Kate
Telly Savalas
Jim Howie
Ossie Davis
Joseph Lee
Dabney Coleman
Jed
Paul Picerni
Frank
Dan Vadis
Yuma
Armando Silvestre
Two Crows
Nick Cravat
Yancy
Tony Epper
Scalphunter
Chuck Roberson
Scalphunter
John Epper
Scalphunter
Jack Williams
Scalphunter
Gregorio Acosta
Scalphunter (uncredited)
Pedro Aguilar
Kiowa (uncredited)
Marco Antonio Arzate
Scalphunter (uncredited)
Alicia De Lago
Scalphunter's Woman (uncredited)
Néstor Domínguez
Kiowa (uncredited)
Raúl Hernández
Kiowa (uncredited)
Alejandro López
Kiowa (uncredited)
Jose G. Martinez
Kiowa (uncredited)
Raúl Martínez
Kiowa (uncredited)
Francisco Oliva
Kiowa (uncredited)
Benjamín Ramos
Kiowa (uncredited)
Amelia Rivera
Scalphunter's woman (uncredited)
Ángela Rodríguez
Scalphunter’s woman (uncredited)
Agapito Roldán
Scalphunter (uncredited)
Jose Salas
Kiowa (uncredited)
Enrique Tello
Kiowa (uncredited)
Rodolfo Toledo
Kiowa (uncredited)
Cuco Velázquez
Kiowa (uncredited)
José Trinidad Villa
(uncredited)
Director
Sydney Pollack
Screenplay
William W. Norton
March 5, 2019
8
Throw you in a pigpen, and you'd come out vice-president of the hogs.
The Scalphunters is directed by Sydney Pollack and adapted to screenplay by William W. Norton from the novel of the same name written by Ed Friend. It stars Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Telly Savalas and Shelley Winters. A Panavision/De Luxe Colour production, music is by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Richard Moore and Duke Callaghan.
Joe Bass (Lancaster) is a fur trapper making his way home with his latest haul when he is stopped by Kiowa Indians. Taking his furs they give him as payment a well educated slave, Joseph Lee (Davis), who they had previously commandeered from a group of Comanches. With Joseph tagging along, Joe sets about pursuing the Kiowa to reclaim his furs, but the Indians fall victim to a band of ruthless Scalphunters led by Jim Howie (Savalas), who gain his furs whilst also by accident capture Joseph. It's Joe Bass against the rest, and only Joseph knows what the Scalphunters are up against.
"Those furs and that man out there are the Scorpio satanic configuration of death for Jim Howie"
Impressively mounted by Pollack, gorgeously shot at Durango, Mexico, The Scalphunters is an interesting blend of a Western action comedy with drama and Civil Rights morality. Film is structured simply by thrusting Lancaster's ignorant and illiterate man of the wilderness together with Davis' literate but ostracised slave. Both men poles apart, but both able to benefit the other if racial barriers can be broke down? Once Joseph falls into the hands of the Scalphunters, film sees Joseph once more held captive, but by using his nous he may be able to finally gain his freedom should the group make it to Mexico.
All the time Joe Bass is tracking the group, picking them off any chance he gets, this means the banter and lively group dynamic of the Scalphunters is pleasantly interrupted by an action scene of some standing. Be it Joe Bass leaping about the rocks and causing a rock avalanche, or the Scalphunters horses going loco, film never lacks for genuine thrills. Some great stunt work in here as well. It's a fine screenplay of much intelligence, not least because it doesn't crowbar in its messages, while it also doesn't patronise the Joseph Lee character. Even as the laughs flit in and out of proceedings, the script pings with smarts as brains are afforded the black man and the ignorance belongs to whitey.
With the cast on fine form and Bernstein scoring it with trademark robustness, it rounds out as a hugely enjoyable Western. So pick a favourite scene and a favourite character, whilst all the time acknowledging that behind the froth and machismo beats a potent thematic heart. 8/10
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$0.00
Revenue:
$0.00