Hiawatha (1952 film)
Hiawatha | |
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Allied Artists Pictures | |
Release date |
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Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Hiawatha is a 1952 American
Plot
Cast
- Vince Edwardsas Hiawatha (as Vincent Edwards)
- Yvette Dugay as Minnehaha
- Keith Larsen as Pau Pukkeewis
- Eugene Iglesiasas Chibiabos (as Gene Iglesias)
- Armando Silvestre as Kwasind
- Michael Tolan as Neyadji
- Ian MacDonald as Chief Megissogwon
- Katherine Emery as Nokomis
- Morris Ankrum as Iagoo
- Stephen Chase as Lakku
- Stuart Randall as Mudjekeewis
- Eula Morgan as Mother of Chibiabos
Production
The movie was partially filmed at Bass Lake, California. Ducey's Bass Lake Lodge served as production headquarters.[4]
Accusations of Communist propaganda
Hiawatha's original production planning schedule, in early 1950, was reported by
Variety reported in January 1951 that Hiawatha resumed production, with Broidy quoted as explaining that "the avalanche of editorial comment which greeted our announcement convinced us unquestionably that the American public would not be dupes for any Communist line, and that our Hiawatha picture could only serve the highest ends of education and entertainment".[5]
Contrary to Broidy's statement that the Hiawatha screenplay was "written by a scenarist whose Americanism is unquestioned", film and television historian Paul Mavis, who devotes a considerable portion of his DVD Talk review of Hiawatha to this controversial aspect of the film, posits that the name of the screenwriter, Arthur Strawn was, in fact, among those of Communists and sympathizers listed in the anti-Communist pamphlet, Red Channels, and states that "Hiawatha was his last official credit, no doubt before he was blacklisted (Others first blacklisted after June 1950).[6] Describing it as a "[M]odest, respectful little Indian tale...lousy with Red Commie propaganda", Mavis details how "then-contemporary 1950s politics lie not so subtly beneath the so-called biographical surface, with the real Hiawatha's purported role as a peacemaker and tribe-uniter used as a framework for some thinly veiled jabs at American military might" and goes on to point out "how clearly screenwriter Strawn (with an assist by Dan Ullman) grafts Red-tinged Daily Worker pacifist carps about American muscle onto Hiawatha's efforts to unite his fellow tribesmen".
Mavis also describes that "[W]hen Hiawatha defeats Pau PukKeewis in their first death match, Hiawatha refuses to kill him, which the movie takes as another positive sign of the innate "rightness" of Hiawatha's pacifism. Of course what the movie doesn't comment on is the price of Hiawatha's pacifism: had Hiawatha killed the clearly evil, troublemaking Pau PukKeewis when he first had the chance, the many subsequent deaths caused by Pau PukKeewis's continued duplicitous war campaign, would not have happened." He concludes that "muscular Vince Edwards looks and sounds right as the soft-spoken, determined Hiawatha. Had Monogram and company stuck with this relatively realistic look at Indian life before the White man came, and ditched all the phony Cold War platitudes, Hiawatha might have turned out to be a minor little gem".[6]
Evaluation in film guides
Assigning 2 stars (out of 5), The Motion Picture Guide stated that "Edwards is cast as the title character in this family version of the classic Longfellow poem" and ultimately described it as "[a]n entertaining film for kids that masks its theme in a flurry of arrows and romance."
Among British references, Leslie Halliwell, in his Film Guide, gave no stars (Halliwell's top rating is 4), dismissing it as a "[m]uddled actioner which has little to do with Longfellow's poem."
References
- ^ Walter Mirisch biography at Turner Classic Movies
- ^ IMDb notes on Hiawatha
- ^ Franklin, Mark. "Hiawatha (1952)" (Once Upon a Time in a Western, June 26, 2016)
- ^ "Hollywood Uses Bass Lake Longfellow's 'Hiawatha' Story Before Cameras". Madera Tribune. No. 109. 1952-06-09. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
- ^ a b c Turner Classic Movies notes regarding Hiawatha
- ^ a b Mavis, Paul. "Hiawatha (Warner Archive Collection)" (DVD Talk, September 12, 2013)
External links
- Hiawatha at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Hiawatha at IMDb
- Hiawatha at the TCM Movie Database
- Hiawatha at AllMovie
- Hiawatha Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine at TV Guide (1987 write-up was originally published in The Motion Picture Guide)