The Scalphunters

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.

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78 Photos

Classical Western Parody Satire Slapstick Comedy Drama Western

Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

4.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 nominations

Videos1

Trailer 3:14

Official Trailer

Photos78

+ 73

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Burt Lancaster had met Ossie Davis on the historic Martin Luther King "Civil Rights March on Washington" on Aug. 28, 1963. This chance meeting led to the talented Davis being cast as "Joseph Winfield Lee", the runaway slave who uses his clever, resourceful ways to manipulate fur trapper "Joe Bass" (Lancaster) in the film. Lancaster also stated that first time screenwriter William W. Norton submitted such a unique, clever script, that he just had to do the film.

Goofs
Set in 1860, Joseph mentions the planet Pluto, discovered in 1930.

Quotes
Joseph Lee: [walking behind Joe Bass and his horse] What about me, sir?
Joe Bass: I'll just sell you to the highest bidder.
Joseph Lee: Could you mske that to a Comanche, sir?
Joe Bass: You seem to have an uncommon prejudice against service to the white-skinned race!
Joseph Lee: I don't mean to be narrow in my attitude. Could I ask you what's your name, sir?
Joe Bass: Joe Bass.
Joseph Lee: Well, Mr. Bass, couldn't you kind of consider me a captured Comanche?
Joe Bass: [both Joe Bass and his horse turn around and do a 'take']
Joseph Lee: I came on my own two feet as far as those Comanches. It was my intent to circle south as far as Mexico. The Mexicans have a law against the slavery trade, and since those Indians captured me from other Indians. I have now got full Indian citizenship.
Joe Bass: Joseph Lee, you ever study the law?
Joseph Lee: No, sir.
Joe Bass: Well, neither did I, but you ain't got a chance in hell of calling yerself an Indian! You're an African slave by employment, black by color!

Connections
Featured in Film Review: Burt Lancaster (1968)

Soundtracks
In Our Lovely Deseret
(uncredited)
Lyrics by Eliza R. Snow
Music by George Frederick Root
Performed by Shelley Winters

User reviews56

Review

Featured review

Okay, but feels unfinished

This is a watchable and never boring western for sure. It starts out quite strongly with Davis and Lancaster feuding and exchanging their barbed comments as they make their journey. But the movie soon stops focusing on that, and starts to go off in multiple directions, bringing up new characters and themes that never quite seem properly dealt with. Indeed, the climax seems kind of deux ex machina, and then not long afterwards when the credits role you get the feeling that there are still some things that haven't been properly dealt with.

But as I indicated, it passes the time pleasantly enough. Those who have seen screenwriter William Norton's "The Hunting Party" will get some extra interest, seeing how Norton took several elements from his screenplay of "The Scalphunters" and reused them in that other movie several years later.