I’ve been trying to dredge up from memory the name of this movie for years now and, like a man driving around lost, I just haven’t wanted to ask for help. But I give up: Can anyone identify this movie?
Made in the 1930’s or early 1940’s, set in upstate New York in the 1750’s, in the midst of the French and Indian Wars (Seven Years War, for the Brits). No, it’s not Last of the Mohicans or Drums Along the Mohawk…but the same time and place. I saw it on TV a couple times in the '50’s.
A group of American frontiermen (somebody’s Rangers…?) are marching into the forest to make a raid on a French fort, I think, which is protected by Indian tribes. Early on, one of the men breaks a leg or something and has to be left behind. Because they are surrounded by hostile Indian scouts, everyone knows he will be captured and tortured as soon as the main body is out of sight. The commander chats with him a moment, offers him a pipe of tobacco, and says, “You know I can’t leave you a rifle.” The injured man says, “I understand, Captain. I’ve got my knife.”
Later on, the survivors of the raid are forced to split up into small bands of men attempting to infiltrate through the Indians in the forest in order to get back to British (American) lines. They’re out of food, don’t dare hunt, don’t dare light a fire. They’re just trying to stay alive and get past the Indians searching for them. One of the men is carrying a wrapped package and, when asked what’s in it, he says, “You ain’t hungry enough yet!” A few days later, as the men are starving, it’s discovered that he has the head of Indian and intends to eat it. Disgusted, the other men throw it away.
A handful of survivors make it back to an English fort where they expect to get food but find that it’s been abandoned and is now empty. They lie down in the fort and expect to die then and there but hear the sound of British army fife and drums. A re-supply expedition marches into the fort carrying massive amounts of food and the men are saved.
Obviously, the movie made a big impression on my 10-year-old self…except for the names of the actors and the name of the movie itself.
Anyone?
