The characters of this comedy live at crossroads: the painter (between the fort and Boston and the Iroquois village; also between art for customers, and art for art's sake, and art as a sensitive depiction of those less known to the larger world), Greta (between hopeless love and her habits and resignation), the misanthrope (between settlers, officers and natives), the officer (on the threshold of two worlds, between law and custom and anarchy, being just in unbalanced situations), the spinster, the Iroquois (between wisdom and mistrust); some learn to adapt (like the painter, Onida, her father the chief), others already have (like Greta or the officer in command of the fort), others fail (like the misanthrope and the Tuscarora), others are victims (like Onida's brother), and settlers continue to arrive; most pass from laughter and nonchalance to speed and strategy (the painter, the officer, Onida, her father laugh, the painter, the officer again, the army called for rescue speed, run), because most of them still rely on wisdom, which has different forms for different places in life, yet all these forms have to converge for the good of the communities (the fort, the Iroquois village, and as a matter of fact the script takes up these two poles, of strongly differentiated community, rather then the settlers, an amorphous quantity), not only the settlers, but also the niece and the aunt don't belong to the plot, the fort and the city loose a painter, the Iroquois chief gains a son, the painter guesses this is the more coherent solution, but the village remains not so far from the fort, and quietly surrounded by settlers, the situation remains far from ideal, with mutual hostility only overcome by a few, mutual hostility as expressed by the wagon master and the settlers and the misanthrope and the Tuscarora and then the tribe. Brady does a swashbuckler role, for a wholly inoffensive kids' movie, anachronistic in most respects, there are at least a couple of involuntarily funny scenes (when the painter escapes from the Iroquois village and runs across the fields and woods, chased by the natives, and when these are shown pillaging the settlers and leaving with chickens in their hands), and severely unlikely situations (the girl arrived from Boston and claiming to be the painter's fiancée), and the movie doesn't convince as an idyll; if the painter wasn't supposed to be annoying, intensely lousy, the misanthrope was, and Hoyt achieves this with an unsettling efficiency. This mediocre movie begins in an atmosphere of gaiety and vaudeville, with a lousy, annoying shrewd painter being humbly and submissively pursued by several women, and everybody offering hearty acting, but wait until the confident painter and the Iroquois woman start learning the language of love, in the Mohawk village (these are perhaps pleasant moments, but for Brady's trying to look confident and assured), then the war council is gathered (after the chief's son has been killed by John Hoyt), the painter runs away, the army also arrives running, both these scenes look oddly silly.
I liked one of the women. She's the country version of a _soubrette, clever and generous. Allison Hayes ('Greta') is the only likable character, physically delicious.
It is a liberal's idyll, with strong and assertive Iroquois women, good-natured soldiers and pompous but wise natives, most bent on peaceful cohabitation; not only the characters, but the idyll is made of cardboard, because if the idea was generous, the talents were mediocre. Rita Gam as 'Onida', and Brady aren't my idea of movie leads. All this could have been charming, and perhaps seen by a kid it was so, though its fate seems deserved. With an ungainly script, the movie could have been more funny if someone else than Brady had been given the lead.
I liked one of the women. She's the country version of a _soubrette, clever and generous. Allison Hayes ('Greta') is the only likable character, physically delicious.
It is a liberal's idyll, with strong and assertive Iroquois women, good-natured soldiers and pompous but wise natives, most bent on peaceful cohabitation; not only the characters, but the idyll is made of cardboard, because if the idea was generous, the talents were mediocre. Rita Gam as 'Onida', and Brady aren't my idea of movie leads. All this could have been charming, and perhaps seen by a kid it was so, though its fate seems deserved. With an ungainly script, the movie could have been more funny if someone else than Brady had been given the lead.