The Scalphunters

3/5/2019

Throw you in a pigpen, and you'd come out vice-president of the hogs. The Scalphunters is directed by Sydney Pollack and adapted to screenplay by William W. Norton from the novel of the same name written by Ed Friend. It stars Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Telly Savalas and Shelley Winters. A Panavision/De Luxe Colour production, music is by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Richard Moore and Duke Callaghan. Joe Bass (Lancaster) is a fur trapper making his way home with his latest haul when he is stopped by Kiowa Indians. Taking his furs they give him as payment a well educated slave, Joseph Lee (Davis), who they had previously commandeered from a group of Comanches. With Joseph tagging along, Joe sets about pursuing the Kiowa to reclaim his furs, but the Indians fall victim to a

2/17/2020

***Amusing late 60s Western with Lancaster, Ossie Davis and Savalas*** A rugged trapper (Burt Lancaster) is forced by a band of Kiowas to trade his valuable furs for an educated runaway slave (Ossie Davis). To get the furs back, they follow the Indians and, then, a band of scalphunters, led by a boisterous bald guy (Telly Savalas). Shelley Winters is also on hand. What’s notable about “The Scalphunters” (1968), besides the cast, is that the entire story takes place in the Southwest wilderness. There are no towns, buildings or teepees in sight. But there’s some gorgeous location photography. While there are entertaining comedic bits, don’t expect anything outrageous like “Blazing Saddles” (1974). This is more in the mode of contemporaneous Westerns like “Bandoleros” (1968), “The W

2/9/2026

If you are looking for an antithesis to so many broody and dialogue-light westerns, then this could well do the trick. “Joe” (Burt Lancaster) is a trapper who is robbed of his winter’s work by some local Indians and left with “Joseph Lee” (Ossie Davis) by way of a trade. He is unsure what he will do with his erudite new travelling companion, but that can wait until he retrieves his furs. Before he gets the chance, though, they are attacked by big “Jim” (Telly Savalas) and his gang of renegade scalp-hunters who can get $25 an head for a scalp! By now, the two in pursuit have developed a bit of a rapport, so the latter man is volunteered to join the thieves in the guise of a recently escaped Indian looking to rejoin his tribe. Unconvinced, they agree to take him along thinking they will sell