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Magua (Bob Cortman), chieftain of the Hurons, wants to win the Mohicans over to
fight the British alongside his tribe & the French, but their
chieftain, Sagamore (Hobart Bosworth), refuses, since the Mohicans have
always been on good
terms with the British, especially their scout Hawkeye (Harry Carey).
Magua, never one to be spurned, then has his men slaughter all Mohicans
- all but Sagamore & his son Uncas (Junior Coghlan) that is, who for some reason were
absent from the ordeal. Not satisfied with this atrocity, he also
decides, posing as an Indian scout for the British, to lead Alice (Lucille
Browne) & Cora (Edwina Booth) the 2
daughters of Captain Munro (Edward Hearn) - a personal enemy of his - plus their
singing teacher & their escort Heyward (Walter Miller) into an ambush. Hawkeye,
Sagamore & Uncas arrive just in time to prevent further slaughter
but can't keep the Munro-girls from being kidnapped. After many a fight,
Hawkeye & his Mohican friends can free them though & even blow
up a powder shipment itended for the French army, but as it seems, the
real battle was fought elsewhere, as Fort William Henry, the fort lead
by captain Munro, falls into the hands of the French, lead by captain
Montcalm (Mischa Auer). Captain Munro can't but admit defeat - but at
least he manages to get an agreement from Montcalm for a safe passage
for the civilians inside the fort. Magua however, his thirst for revenge
not stilled yet, does not intend to show such mercy, as he attacks the
treck once outside the fort, slaughters a great many of the unarmed
civilians & kidnaps the Munro girls yet again. But then there's
treacherous French spy Dulac (Walter McGrail), who has formerly sided
with Magua, but he now needs Cora Munro, who is the only one who knows
the whereabouts of a gold shipment he wants to get his hands on - only
Magua won't give her to him voluntarily. So he frees her on his own, but
that only brings the Hurons up against him, with Cora caught in the
middle. soon she & Dulac's party are holed up in a hut surrounded by
Hurons, & Magua offers to let Alice go only if Cora agrees to stay
with him, which she does. With Cora back at the Hurons' camp, suddenly
just about everyone tries to free her, including Heyward, Hawkeye &
the Mohicans & Dulac, & all seems lost when Hawkeye & the
Sagamore are finally captured. Only thanks to the singing teacher do
they manage to get free, & thanks to Captain Munro's approaching
army are the Hurons overthrown ... except for Magua of course, who
managed to get away & recapture the freed Munro girls again. In a
fight up some cliffs the matter is finally resolved, with Magua &
the treacherous Dulac finally killed & the girls freed, but also the
Sagamore loses his life, thus making Uncas the last of the Mohicans. Rather
cheap but actuion packed adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's famous
novel, done as a serial, which suits the source material quite fine
since it is full of action anyways (that is not to say that the
scriptwriters did not take many a liberty upon the book - after all they
had to apply the cliffhanger-foprmula to it). Harry Carey, playing
Hawkeye, proves to be good casting, since he brings a certain maturity
to the role (he has been in Western since the 1910's) & generally
portrays his Western heroes less as glamourous swashbucklers - like
let's say Tom Mix - but as ambivalent heroes & his acting always
hints at him having second thoughts or secret plans.
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