Last of the Mohicans

The setting is the wilderness of northern New York State during the French and Indian war of 1757. Two English women, daughters of a British officer, are captured by Indians. One of them, Cora, attracts the love of two Indians, one the noble Uncas (the ‘last’ Mohican) the other the villainous Magua. Underlying the romance of the fast moving, concise narrative are darker implications of miscegenation, the threat of rape and of unbridled savagery. This is widely considered to be the finest surviving example of Tourneur’s influential pictorial style although the film was actually directed by Clarence Brown under the close supervision of the injured Tourneur. Adapted from the novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Cast includes Barbara Bedford, Lillian Hall, Wallace Beery.