Approved | 30min | Adventure, Western | TV Series (1957)
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys are at war with the ruthless tax collectors, a bunch of outlaws, more Robin Hood than the Dalton gang. But when the authorities start to pin their misdeeds on them, Hawkeye must sort it out.
Director: Sam Newfield
Writers: Nat Tanchuck, Mortimer Braus
Stars: John Hart, Lon Chaney Jr., Chris Wiggins
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys are at war with the ruthless tax collectors, a bunch of outlaws, more Robin Hood than the Dalton gang. But when the authorities start to pin their misdeeds on them, Hawkeye must sort it out.
Director: Sam Newfield
Writers: Nat Tanchuck, Mortimer Braus
Stars: John Hart, Lon Chaney Jr., Chris Wiggins
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00The immortal pen of James F. Cooper brings you thrilling tales of excitement, blazing
00:14action on the early American frontier, stirring adventures filled with the daring and courage
00:21of Hawkeye, first of the Long Rifles, and his blood brother, Chinguchkuk, last of the
00:30Mohicans.
00:31Hey!
00:32Thieves!
00:33Robbers!
00:34That's a fine description for a tax collector like yourself, Master Boomer.
00:51You!
00:52Oh, no!
00:53Oh, yes, Master Boomer, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys at your service.
01:03The fat one's getting fatter.
01:06And from the looks of him, richer.
01:08Don't you touch it, Ethan Allen!
01:09That's government money!
01:10Now, what made me believe it was plunder, gouged out of the hides of honest settlers
01:17to keep you and that polecat sheriff eating high on the hog?
01:22Now, what should we do with him?
01:26Get the rope, boy.
01:27No!
01:28Let me go, you gallowsbirds!
01:29I'll see you all hang yourselves!
01:30Here, hat, sir.
01:31You'll pay for this, Ethan Allen!
01:32All right, boys.
01:33String him up.
01:34No!
01:35Help!
01:38Help!
01:41Help!
01:45Help!
01:48There.
01:51Help!
01:54No, no!
02:01I don't want to die!
02:02Now, stop sawing the wind, friend.
02:04He's just going to cut you loose.
02:08First time I see man fall uptree.
02:10It was Ethan Allen and those Green Mountain bullies of his.
02:13First they robbed me and then they leave me as helpless prey to wild beasts.
02:17I've heard of this Ethan Allen. You're sure it was him?
02:20Sure, his death and taxes.
02:21I see him whenever I'm out performing my duty collecting taxes.
02:24Like a ghost out of Hades he appears.
02:26Now this sounds like something the sheriff in the settlement should hear about.
02:29He'll hear about it.
02:31This time Ethan Allen's gone too far.
02:34I told him I'd live to see him hang from the gallows.
02:43It's the right amount for the three of us, isn't it, Sheriff?
02:48Where'd you get it?
02:49You didn't have it yesterday when Boomer went around to collect.
02:51From Ethan Allen, that's where.
02:53I was robbed and I'd still be out there if they hadn't come along.
02:57And that's part of my collection, no doubt.
02:59Boomer, I told you to wait for a couple of my men before you started collecting again.
03:04You know what the penalty is for conspiring with an outlaw like Ethan Allen?
03:08The rope.
03:09We don't know nothing about Ethan Allen.
03:10We... we just come here to pay our taxes.
03:13Pay your taxes?
03:14Yesterday I was tacking up eviction warnings on your cabins.
03:17And a few hours after I was robbed, here you are paying with what you didn't have before.
03:21Fair, smart and smug, ain't you?
03:24Well, we'll see if some of that can be taken out from you from behind bars.
03:27Maybe that'll be a lesson to some of the other law-breaking settlers around here.
03:30We're honest then.
03:32Witches more than can be said for you, Sheriff Peterson.
03:35You're under arrest.
03:36Don't you think you're being a little hasty, Sheriff?
03:38I was just thinking, money's money.
03:40Might be a little difficult to identify which coins came out of the tax collector's pouch
03:45and which didn't.
03:45I'll be the judge of that.
03:47You're under arrest.
03:48Don't you think you need a little more proof than just an angry opinion
03:51before you start arresting people for paying their taxes?
03:53Just who do you think you are telling me my business?
04:03Well, why didn't you say so before?
04:07Look, get out of here.
04:08Next time, pay your taxes on the day they're due.
04:16I, uh, I wasn't expecting the Commissioner General to send anyone so quick.
04:21Was I, Bulmer?
04:22Uh, no.
04:23No, we figured it'd be two, three weeks more.
04:26The Commissioner General considered your complaint about this operation
04:29The Commissioner General considered your complaint about this outlaw, Ethan Allen,
04:32deserving of fast action.
04:34From what we've seen, I'd say that Allen and his Green Mountain boys pose you quite a problem.
04:39Robbers and traitors!
04:41Obstructing and preventing a King's officer from doing his duty!
04:43Ah, Bulmer, the gentlemen know all about that now.
04:47You must pardon me for losing my temper with the settlers just now.
04:50It's just their sort that are protecting Ethan Allen.
04:52Why would a law-abiding citizen do that?
04:55Well, some of them ain't so honest.
04:56Some of them had settled their souls for a few pence.
04:59You can never tell which one of them's spying for Ethan Allen and which one ain't.
05:02That's the pity of it, Sheriff.
05:03An outlaw looks just like an honest man from the outside.
05:06I knew the Commissioner General would send us a man who understood my problem.
05:10I'm all for working hand-in-glove with you.
05:12I don't mind admitting this is my first time in Green Mountain country.
05:16From what you say about this Ethan Allen, I'll be needing all the help I can get.
05:19Well, we'll be glad to help you in any way we can.
05:22Now, there's a few likely places Ethan Allen may be hiding out.
05:24Uh, Green Mountain Pass, Twin Peaks, Meadow Grange.
05:28Where'd you like to start?
05:29It's all the same to you, Sheriff.
05:30The nearest tavern's sinking my teeth into a rare bit of mutton.
05:33Good day to you, gentlemen.
05:38A silent Indian and a simple woodsman.
05:44The Commissioner General couldn't have been kinder to us than if he was our own brother.
05:48We got nothing to worry about, ain't we?
05:51The minute you came walking in here with him,
05:52I had a feeling that nothing good was blowing in.
05:55For your information, Master Boomer,
05:57the Commissioner General has sent us the one man who can give us more trouble than Ethan Allen.
06:02That simple woodsman, as you call him, has a name.
06:05It's Hawkeye.
06:07Well, he doesn't suspect anything.
06:09It's Ethan Allen he's after.
06:12For once, my fat friend, you're right.
06:14We got to make sure that he finds Ethan Allen before he finds out about us.
06:22Oh, Mr. Woodsman.
06:23Asking your pardon, but my friends and I want to thank you for your words to the Sheriff.
06:28You can thank your own honesty, Mr. Fickett, for paying the King's taxes.
06:31The King's taxes?
06:32A fair lot the King knows about these taxes, lying in the Sheriff's pockets and...
06:36Those are serious charges.
06:38If you've got proof, you'd do well to bring it before the proper authorities.
06:41Get clapped in jail or have to chase off to Green Mountain and hide out with Ethan Allen?
06:45No, thank you.
06:47Mr. Fickett, according to you, everything around here is upside down.
06:51The Sheriff's the outlaw and the outlaw's the honest man.
06:54Would you repeat what you just said to me on the witness stand?
06:58Well, I...
06:59I...
07:02We'd better be getting on if we want to get back to our farms before dark.
07:10When man have fear in heart, tongue become frozen.
07:15Barmaid.
07:16Barmaid.
07:21If you've got a roast, heap up a couple of plates.
07:23We're as hungry as grizzlies.
07:34Good boy.
07:35Too hungry to look for Ethan Allen.
07:38Too full to climb Green Mountains.
07:40Yeah, those mountains look big, all right.
07:41But hanging around here won't make them any smaller.
07:46What paper say?
08:01Says, you saved Fickett and the others from jail.
08:05I'll save you the trouble of looking for me.
08:07I'll be waiting at Big Tree, four miles down trail.
08:12Signed, Ethan Allen.
08:13Then Sheriff is right.
08:15Outlaw have spy everywhere.
08:17We go.
08:18Well, when you get an invitation from the man you're looking for,
08:21you can't refuse to accept it.
08:24Kind of feel like a bear sticking his nose in a beehive.
08:30There is old Mohican saying,
08:32that if bear go look for honey with eyes not open, get many bee sting.
08:45Well, there's where we split up.
08:47You take the lower trail.
08:48No sense in putting two heads in one noose.
09:15Well, Hawkeye, what's going on here?
09:39Ah, Ethan Allen again, hmm?
09:42Well, it's a good thing me and my man haven't along.
09:44It looks like you didn't need much help.
09:47All right, jail for you, Green Mountain boy.
09:52Well, now you can see what I'm up against here.
09:54These outlaws will stop at nothing, not even murder.
09:57Seeing as how we're still alive,
09:58murder would be a hard charge to prove, Sheriff.
10:01Well, attempted murder won't be.
10:03Yeah, this is one thing I'm sure of.
10:05Well, if you should come across Ethan Allen's hideout,
10:18well, don't take any chances.
10:20Remember, me and my men, we're here to serve you.
10:23We'll keep that in mind, Sheriff.
10:25All right, get going.
10:26There are many trails through forest.
10:35Why does Sheriff happen on this one?
10:38That's what I was wondering.
10:40But first, we're going to find out
10:41if Ethan Allen really sent this note.
10:56Just for a moment, Mr. Fickett, it's important that I talk to you.
11:03Around these parts, talking can be dangerous.
11:06I've already thanked you for helping me, Dave.
11:08Now leave me be.
11:09Just answer one question.
11:10Where can I find Ethan Allen?
11:12So I was right.
11:14The only reason you befriended me and the others
11:16was in the hope of tricking us into betraying him.
11:19Whose idea was it?
11:21Sheriff Peterson's or that tub of lard boomer?
11:24Just an idea of my own.
11:26But speaking of betraying, maybe you can explain
11:28why my friend and I were set on today by a band of Green Mountain Boys.
11:32Green Mountain Boys ain't bushwhackers.
11:34And I've never been accused of being a spy.
11:37Well, whoever you are, you did keep me and my friends out of the lockup.
11:42But that don't give you no cause to come busting in here
11:44and quizzing me about Ethan Allen.
11:45That's why I'm here.
11:47I am from the Commissioner General's office.
11:49I'm here in the cause of justice.
11:51If Ethan Allen is an honest man, you owe him a duty to help him prove it.
11:55He's already proved himself to us around here.
11:57Honest man looks straight in eye, not hiding forest like weasel.
12:04I've been called many things before, but never a weasel.
12:09I've known some liars that can look in a man's eyes and never bat a lash.
12:14Take their weapons.
12:18And so now your search for me is over.
12:21He's a Commissioner General's man.
12:23Oh, so the sheriff has sent for expert help.
12:26Yes, he did, Ethan Allen.
12:27But just don't forget, experts have minds of their own.
12:30Yeah, they got necks that can stretch as well as anyone's too.
12:34Now, that's a remark I'd expect from a desperate outlaw.
12:36From what I've seen and heard in these parts,
12:39I didn't figure you fit that description.
12:40So now that you've seen me, has your mind changed any?
12:43That's for a court of law to decide.
12:46I'm asking you all to give yourselves up.
12:49Listen to him, boys.
12:51They can't sheriff us out, so they send us an invite
12:53direct from the Commissioner General himself.
12:56And if we take it, we'll all be dancing high and light on the gallows.
13:00That's where you're mistaken.
13:01The Commissioner General is just and fair.
13:03If you're honest men, you'll go free.
13:05And who might you be, the Prime Minister himself?
13:08He is called Hawkeye by his Indian brothers.
13:11Hawkeye, that's a name we've heard before, isn't it, boys?
13:14Yeah, when I was up Chamango Way,
13:16I heard tell how he saved an innocent soldier from hanging on a false charge of treason.
13:21Yeah, and all up and down the colonies,
13:23they say a man can trust just two things,
13:25a charge of honest dry powder and the word of Hawkeye.
13:29Ethan, talk will only bury us deeper.
13:32Let's teach him a lesson and send him on the way.
13:34Let's not be hasty, Jake.
13:35There's something else about Hawkeye.
13:37The Indians call him that because there isn't anyone can shoot better.
13:41And there ain't nobody can shoot better than you in the Green Mountains, Ethan.
13:44Exactly.
13:46Stranger, we're going to see if you're really Hawkeye or just another liar.
13:51Picket, give him his rifle.
14:00You see that deer's head up there?
14:02You take the left eye, I'll take the right.
14:04Go ahead.
14:12I saw it, but I don't believe it.
14:15He never even took aim.
14:18Hawkeye, that shot blew away my doubts on you.
14:21Yeah, the feeling I had that I was going to a hanging.
14:24When bear hear man laugh, know he not have to hide in forest from rifle.
14:29Men would never have to run if they could just look in each other's faces and
14:33really know each other.
14:34Then will you and your Green Mountain boys go with me to the Commissioner General?
14:37Hawkeye, I can only speak for myself, not my men.
14:41They've got the right to decide for themselves on an important thing like that.
14:45It's like Mohican Council.
14:46All braves have right to tell tribe what to do.
14:49That's right, Chingachgook.
14:51We Green Mountain boys figure that free men have the right to speak their peace
14:55before we take any sort of action.
14:57But whatever decision my boys and I reach, I'll see you here tomorrow.
15:00Come on, boys.
15:08That's the first time I ever heard Ethan Allen tell anyone
15:10where he was going to be the following day.
15:16Goodbye, Mr. Picket.
15:20Goodbye, Mr. Picket.
15:34What are you doing here?
15:36I already paid my taxes.
15:37Sure you paid your taxes.
15:38Forgot to give you a receipt.
15:40Okay, take him in the back room.
15:41Tie him up.
15:42No.
15:42The rest of you get ready.
15:43What if Hawkeye shows up before Ethan Allen?
15:45Then we'll take them both.
15:47We've got plenty of necktie rope for everybody.
15:49Come on, let's get over here.
15:53What's the matter, Ethan?
15:54I don't know.
15:56It's awful quiet around that cabin.
15:59That Picket.
16:00I've known him to sleep past seven in the morning.
16:03Yeah, we'll see.
16:04I'm going in alone.
16:06You cover me.
16:44Jake!
16:44No, get going!
16:49All right, bring him along.
17:14Hawkeye set a trap for us.
17:17Ethan's a prisoner.
17:18We got to set him free if we have to take that whole settlement apart stick by stick.
17:23Answering violence with violence won't help.
17:27You double dealing traitor.
17:29I didn't think Green Mountain Boys shot men down without giving them a hearing.
17:39All right, speak your piece.
17:41But you ain't going to talk us out of hanging you.
17:43Hanging us won't save Ethan Allen.
17:45We'll worry about Ethan after we've taken care of you.
17:48You got any last words to say?
17:49Just one thing.
17:51You're making a big mistake.
17:53What happened today was just as much a surprise to me as it was you.
17:56We trailed you here to tell you that.
17:58Are you finished?
17:59No, but you'll be if you don't stop taking the law into your own hands.
18:03If you try to rescue Ethan Allen by force,
18:06you'll be hunted down by something more than just a sheriff.
18:09You attack settlement, maybe hurt woman or child.
18:13Then Green Mountain's not big enough to hide you.
18:16I've learned enough to be convinced that Bulmer and the sheriff are the ones who belong behind bars.
18:20If you men would just sit tight and let Chingagook and I take care of this,
18:24Ethan would be free.
18:25What can you do?
18:27Walk in and wave your finger in front of the sheriff's face?
18:30He'll laugh at you.
18:32There's only one thing that rogue will listen to.
18:35Our rifles.
18:36Commit violence and you won't be able to go home.
18:39Some of you men have families.
18:40If you won't think of yourselves, think of them.
18:43You won't be free to see them again unless you let me handle this my way.
18:46You hit us where it hurts, Hawkeye.
18:48We all want to go home to our families and be able to live like honest men again.
18:53We'll give you the dusk to set Ethan free.
18:59Your friend here is staying.
19:01If you ain't back with Ethan before dusk, we're hanging him.
19:08You go, my brother.
19:11Fifty pounds, ten.
19:17Fifty-one.
19:22Peterson, don't see.
19:22You won't miss.
19:25Fifty-two and six.
19:34Where did the sheriff take Ethan Allen?
19:36I don't know.
19:37That cell's empty, but it won't be for long.
19:39There'll be a dead man in it.
19:40You.
19:41You're too late.
19:41He's hanging him.
19:42Hanging him?
19:43Where? There's no gallows out back.
19:45At the edge of town over there.
20:00Bulmer, you better pray that I'm on time or you'll be praying at your own execution.
20:10Well, you're not so brave now I'm sending you to meet your maker, huh?
20:13At least I'm prepared to meet my maker face-to-face, which is more than I can say for you.
20:19All right, stand clear.
20:21Get out.
20:26Yeah!
20:32Come on, after him!
20:39Get out!
20:56You like me for costing, don't you, Hawkeye?
20:58I've lost it.
21:01Looks like I got you out of the frying pan and both of us into the fire.
21:10In a spot like this, it's a pleasure to have the finest marksman in the colony on my side.
21:18It's a pleasure to be shooting with, not against, the best in the Green Mountains.
21:26All right, let's rush him.
21:27There's only two of them.
21:28Come on.
21:29I'll take the one on the left.
21:40Allen, Hawkeye, give yourselves up.
21:44I'm warning you.
21:45I'm warning you, Sheriff.
21:46You'd better give yourself up if you want a fair trial.
21:49Give him up, Ollie!
22:01With our power supply out, we're going to have to figure out another way of fighting.
22:04That's all right by me.
22:07They're out of shots.
22:08Come on, rush them!
22:09Let's go!
22:39Hey, Jake, I never thought I'd be so glad to see your big ugly face.
22:46Me too.
22:47Green Mountain men never doubt Hawkeye's word.
22:50Here's to my hands on us.
22:57You can tell the Commissioner General will abide by whatever decision he makes.
23:02I have an idea he'll approve of my leaving you here as Sheriff, Ethan.
23:05You ain't said nothing about me being Chief Deputy.
23:08Well, I haven't recommended you for the job.
23:11We can't leave the territory without a tax collector.
23:14You're it.
23:16But just remember, taxes don't belong to the collector.
23:19They belong to the people.
23:22Well, good luck with your new jobs, gentlemen.
23:25Bye, Hawkeye.
23:25Bye, Hawkeye.
23:27Hey, Hawkeye, I don't understand about taxes.
23:32Indians not have taxes.
23:34Very happy.
23:35Well, that's right, but white men don't mind paying for the privilege of living in a free country.
23:47Join us again at this same time next week for another of James Fenimore Cooper's gripping
23:51tales of the early American frontier.
23:54Another exciting adventure of Hawkeye and his blood brother Chinguchkuk, last of the Mohicans.