I still remember the startling scene of the Mohawk brave suddenly popping up in the church pulpit...and Dame Edna May Oliver being carried outside her flaming house by the rampaging Indians as she defiantly lies in the family bedstead she refuses to abandon. Unforgettable scenes!...."Drums Along the Mohawk" (Henry Fonda, Claudette Colbert)...great stuff!
"Northwest Passage" (Spencer Tracy, Robert Young) is an historic, brilliant movie that portrays the courage, bravery and determination of our early American explorers and their determined foot soldiers.
Americana at its finest.
Leni
Colbert's hysterics when Fonda's Indian friend just appears in her house about one day after she's travelled a long distance on her honeymoon is as shocking today as it must have been when first shown. Of course, it turns comical when the brave suggests a good beating will do her a world of good as she appears to be a good wife.
BTW, I always enjoyed the camaraderie between Edna Mae and Ward Bond in this movie. Bond is quite hunky in this!
Some favorite scenes from Drums Along The Mohawk:
The creepy John Carradine offering a toast to the newlyweds, General Herkimer’s speech to the militia, Carradine again, blowing the whistle in the mist followed by the Indians appearing behind him seemingly out of nowhere, Lana and Gil “interviewing” with Edna May Oliver, Gil’s post-battle narration delivered with his thousand-yard stare on Mrs. McKlennar’s kitchen floor while pandemonium surrounds him, Blueback’s opinion of childbirth, Joe tied to the cart full of hay and laughing as the Indians prepare to burn him, Gil outrunning the Indians, the scene of the column of Continentals running down the hill towards the fort just as it is overwhelmed by the Indians and Tories, and the final passing from hand-to-hand of the new country’s flag up to the top of the church spire. As dramatic, inspiring and patriotic a movie as I’ve ever seen.