Hiawatha

This 1952 low budget film is one of the few attempts to depict Native American life before European interference. It is a realistic portrayal of the legend of Hiawatha, loosely based on the Longfellow poem, leaving out the supernatural elements. As such, it is moderately successful. A much depilated Vincent Edwards in the lead role tries hard, but he is a bit of a wooden Indian, thoroughly upstaged by the much more interesting warmonger Popokeewis, his bitter enemy (Keith Larsen). John Ericson played Hiawatha 6 yrs. later in the Shirley Temple Storybook TV production with the fantasy elements very much in play. Film buffs interested in Native American life should see this modest piece, it is a sincere effort, though it's put in the shade by such later films as the splendid 1980 "Windwalker."

Trivia buffs might not help but notice and ask, was this a Monogram Picture, an Allied Artists movie like on some lists, or a Warner Brothers movie like the new box cover seems to say? At one stage or another, I guess it belonged to one of them. Marlin Skiles' musical score and scenic locations at Bass Lake really add a great deal to a rather wooden plot where Hiawatha attempts to prevent war with a nearby tribe that's being provoked by murders one of his own tribal leaders has committed. Vince Edwards (TV's Ben Casey) seems at his best romancing Minehaha while he tries to locate his lost father from the other tribe. Yvette Dugay is magnetic in her part, but Victor Mature and Debra Paget they're not. The absorbing atmosphere just takes me to a different place and time so much to forgive any dullness or holes in the plot.