"The Scalphunters" was directed by one of my favorite directors...Sydney Pollack, however I think he missed the boat on this one. On one hand we have the light hearted relationships between star Burt Lancaster as Joe Bass a fur trapper and an escaped slave Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis), the evil scalphunter Jim Howie (Telly Savalas) and his prostitute girlfriend Kate (Shelley Winters) and the very graphic and violent raid carried out by the scalphunters and the Kiowas on the other hand.
The story has Bass coming down from the hills with his cache of beaver pelts that he has amassed over the winter. He is surrounded by Two Crows (Armando Sylvestre) and his Kiowa warriors. They "trade" a captured but well educated black escaped salve for his valuable furs. Of course Bass wants no part of this but is forced to accept the ex-slave. Bass and Joseph set out to follow the Indians and come upon them all liquored up and celebrating. Just as Bass is about to retrieve his furs, a gang of vicious scalphunters led by Jim Howie attack and brutally butcher the Kiowas taking their scalps in the process.
Bass and Joseph follow the gang but Joseph accidentally falls (literally) into their hands. Joseph, ever the schemer befriends Kate and learns that the gang is planning to go to Mexico where there is no slavery. He decides to throw in with them in spite of their mistreatment of him. Bass meanwhile carries out guerilla type raids on the camp to the point of starting an avalanche of rocks upon them. Just as Joseph negotiates the return of the furs, Two Crows, who had survived the previous attack, arrives with his braves and kills all of the scalphunters except for Kate and the other women. Howie has been killed by Bass previously in a sneak attack.
As all of this is going on , Bass and Joseph are engaged in a muddy fight when Two Crows discovers them and.....................................................................
As I mentioned earlier, the graphic and brutal violence just doesn't male sense in light of the director's attempts to inject comedy in to the proceedings. However, it was good to see Ossie Davis in major role as the educated ex-slave. Included in Howie's gang are Paul Picerni, Chuck Roberson (John Wayne's stunt double) and Lancaster's buddy from his acrobat days, Nick Cravat whom Lancaster always found a role for. In his films.
The story has Bass coming down from the hills with his cache of beaver pelts that he has amassed over the winter. He is surrounded by Two Crows (Armando Sylvestre) and his Kiowa warriors. They "trade" a captured but well educated black escaped salve for his valuable furs. Of course Bass wants no part of this but is forced to accept the ex-slave. Bass and Joseph set out to follow the Indians and come upon them all liquored up and celebrating. Just as Bass is about to retrieve his furs, a gang of vicious scalphunters led by Jim Howie attack and brutally butcher the Kiowas taking their scalps in the process.
Bass and Joseph follow the gang but Joseph accidentally falls (literally) into their hands. Joseph, ever the schemer befriends Kate and learns that the gang is planning to go to Mexico where there is no slavery. He decides to throw in with them in spite of their mistreatment of him. Bass meanwhile carries out guerilla type raids on the camp to the point of starting an avalanche of rocks upon them. Just as Joseph negotiates the return of the furs, Two Crows, who had survived the previous attack, arrives with his braves and kills all of the scalphunters except for Kate and the other women. Howie has been killed by Bass previously in a sneak attack.
As all of this is going on , Bass and Joseph are engaged in a muddy fight when Two Crows discovers them and.....................................................................
As I mentioned earlier, the graphic and brutal violence just doesn't male sense in light of the director's attempts to inject comedy in to the proceedings. However, it was good to see Ossie Davis in major role as the educated ex-slave. Included in Howie's gang are Paul Picerni, Chuck Roberson (John Wayne's stunt double) and Lancaster's buddy from his acrobat days, Nick Cravat whom Lancaster always found a role for. In his films.