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.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.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.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
- Scalphunter
- (uncredited)
- Kiowa
- (uncredited)
- Scalphunter
- (uncredited)
- Scalphunter's woman
- (uncredited)
- Kiowa
- (uncredited)
- Kiowa
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBurt Lancaster had met Ossie Davis on the historic Martin Luther King "Civil Rights March on Washington" on Aug. 28, 1963. This chance meeting led to the talented Davis being cast as "Joseph Winfield Lee", the runaway slave who uses his clever, resourceful ways to manipulate fur trapper "Joe Bass" (Lancaster) in the film. Lancaster also stated that first time screenwriter William W. Norton submitted such a unique, clever script, that he just had to do the film.
- GoofsSet in 1860, Joseph mentions the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930.
- Quotes
Joseph Lee: [walking behind Joe Bass and his horse] What about me, sir?
Joe Bass: I'll just sell you to the highest bidder.
Joseph Lee: Could you mske that to a Comanche, sir?
Joe Bass: You seem to have an uncommon prejudice against service to the white-skinned race!
Joseph Lee: I don't mean to be narrow in my attitude. Could I ask you what's your name, sir?
Joe Bass: Joe Bass.
Joseph Lee: Well, Mr. Bass, couldn't you kind of consider me a captured Comanche?
Joe Bass: [both Joe Bass and his horse turn around and do a 'take']
Joseph Lee: I came on my own two feet as far as those Comanches. It was my intent to circle south as far as Mexico. The Mexicans have a law against the slavery trade, and since those Indians captured me from other Indians. I have now got full Indian citizenship.
Joe Bass: Joseph Lee, you ever study the law?
Joseph Lee: No, sir.
Joe Bass: Well, neither did I, but you ain't got a chance in hell of calling yerself an Indian! You're an African slave by employment, black by color!
- ConnectionsFeatured in Film Review: Burt Lancaster (1968)
- SoundtracksIn Our Lovely Deseret
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Eliza R. Snow
Music by George Frederick Root
Performed by Shelley Winters
I've always been a huge admirer of Burt Lancaster & his work & in my book this is one of his very best; it may just be his best, but how can you beat Crimson Pirate or Vera Cruz or Sweet Smell of Success or even his first - The Killers? The man was endowed with very high doses of intelligence, humor, humanity, physical presence & and a sort of 19th century stage hamminess. There used to be a saying that you could tell the type of film Lancaster was doing by his hairdo. When the hair was short, the movie was serious. When it was wavy, his tongue was filling up his cheek. It's quite wavy in Scalphunters. He's the epitome of the mountain man / trapper in this one: whiskey-drinking, bible-quoting highly-opionated & super-stubborn Joe Bass. Mark Twain would have loved this character, he's right out of Twain's imagination. It's hard to believe that Lancaster was in his mid-50's when he made this. He looks much younger & moves with the quickness & grace that made this ex-trapeze performer a legend.
Ossie Davis is a perfect match for Lancaster as the extraordinarily wise & well-educated but highly wary escaped slave Joseph Lee, who must continually rein in his instinct to trump the cruder but highly canny in his own way Joe Bass. The film is an almost Shakespearean interplay of their personalities - duel & duet . The viewer is able to observe the change they continually effect upon each other.
The Scalphunters themselves are a group of lowlifes led by Telly Savalas as Jim Howie (in the best role I ever saw him play in a movie), a nasty but not unwise lout who spends most of the day & night in his baggy long johns. They make their living robbing & killing & selling Indian scalps to the government. I found the portrayal (& dialog) of these bushwhackers as real & accurate in every detail as anything I've ever seen on the screen, right down to Howie's astrology ("star-gazin") ex-whore lady-friend Kate played by Shelly Winters in her least whiny role ever. There's plenty of tension & action in this film. It's cat vs. mice from start to finish: Lancaster vs. Indians, Lancaster vs. Scalphunters, Lancaster vs. Indians again.
The performances, Sidney Pollack's direction & William Norton's writing all serve to put this film in a class with The Searchers. I believe it is to Lancaster's career what The Searchers is to John Wayne's.
Definitely a magnificent achievement. A must for wide-screen DVD restoration.
- inframan
- Nov 27, 2002
- How long is The Scalphunters?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1