Approved | 30min | Adventure, Western | TV Series (1957)
Freedom of the press is threatened when the editor is framed for murder.
Director: Sam Newfield
Writers: Endre Bohem, Louis Vittes, David Boehm, James Fenimore Cooper
Stars: John Hart, Lon Chaney Jr., Don Sinclair
Freedom of the press is threatened when the editor is framed for murder.
Director: Sam Newfield
Writers: Endre Bohem, Louis Vittes, David Boehm, James Fenimore Cooper
Stars: John Hart, Lon Chaney Jr., Don Sinclair
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.
00:34How's that printing equipment doing?
00:47Did you get it tied down?
00:49Good.
00:50Why do they make boxes so big, like white men use for coffins?
00:55According to that letter Ben Franklin showed me, if we don't keep our eyes peeled, those
00:59boxes are liable to be our coffins.
01:03Hold your fire till you see the breath frost in the air.
01:06No sense wasting lead.
01:15Hawkeye.
01:21Now.
01:35I'm gonna go on through.
01:36Keep firing.
01:37All rifles loaded.
01:49Did you get a good look at any of them?
01:51Nutsy face.
01:52You go too fast.
01:53It's a good thing we did.
01:54Now we know what we're up against.
01:56There's at least three men here of ours who don't care about reading newspapers.
02:07The blacksmith finally fixed this frame.
02:10Fetch me that hammer, will you, ma'am?
02:16Two weeks now.
02:17Day and night you've been devoting to repairing that frame.
02:20I can't get out of the newspaper without it.
02:22It's our livelihood.
02:23Our death, more likely.
02:25A man's got a job to do.
02:27He's got to do it.
02:28Not when it means his life.
02:30When you got them first warnings to stop printing the paper, you just laughed it off.
02:35Said people who write notes never carry out their threats.
02:38Well, they came.
02:40Nameless men in the middle of the night with destruction in their hearts.
02:44And I told you a busted press could be fixed and spoiled type could be replaced.
02:50The next time those men come, it'll be with murder in their hearts.
02:55You've got to think of me and your son.
02:58Without you, Nathan, we'd be lost.
03:00Martha, when Ben Franklin gave me my start in the newspaper business,
03:05I vowed nothing or nobody had stopped me from printing the truth.
03:09You want me to stop printing it?
03:11I'll break my vow.
03:13But before you give me your answer, ask yourself,
03:16is life so sweet that we'll cling on to it and see this whole town become a sewer of iniquity
03:22for our son to grow up and wallow in?
03:24Pa, it's here.
03:26The tape you sent for.
03:27An Indian and a woodsman are bringing it.
03:47Hmm?
03:50Nathan Peel looks mighty happy about them coffin boxes full of type.
03:54Maybe he'll be wearing that smile on the other side of his face before long.
04:03It'd be a shame to waste them boxes after them boys took so much trouble to bring them here.
04:09You handle that type like it was solid gold.
04:12Type's better than gold.
04:14Makes it possible to print what's in men's minds and hearts.
04:20Joseph!
04:22I want you to meet my friends, Hawkeye and Chigachgook.
04:25This is Joe Merrick, my wife's brother.
04:28They're the men who brought me type from Ben Franklin.
04:31But I've got to tell you,
04:34They're the men who brought me type from Ben Franklin.
04:37Ben would have done you a better favor if he'd kept them in Philadelphia with that type.
04:42Baxterville needs a paper.
04:44What for? To wrap fish in?
04:46To know things, to find out what's going on.
04:48Who cares anything about Indians getting liquor?
04:51That's all what you were raving about before they busted up your press.
04:54Firewater bad for Indians.
04:56Indians are like children.
04:59They're not used to liquor.
05:01And you ask, who cares?
05:03People who have lost mothers, fathers, children.
05:06If you're so worried about people's families, why don't you start with your own?
05:10You're placing Martha and the boy in danger.
05:13Everybody knows selling liquor to the Indians is illegal.
05:16But you don't know who's behind it. I don't. Nobody does.
05:19The man who's selling the liquor does.
05:22The paper can smoke him out, Joey.
05:25Or get you killed.
05:28Nathan, there's more than enough land for all of us.
05:32There's a wilderness out there that needs clearing.
05:34There's a wilderness in men's minds that needs clearing, too.
05:38Martha, you've got a right to speak up.
05:40I didn't want Nathan to go on with the paper, but...
05:43Then you and the boy come along with me.
05:45My place is with my husband.
05:48He's got you under his thumb, too.
05:50But I've no mind to stand by and watch my own sister and nephew destroyed...
05:54Even if I have to get rid of this thing myself.
06:01Where do you think you're going?
06:03Why, you...
06:25Oh!
06:29Brother, listen.
06:31Hawkeye, teach.
06:40You're gonna be sorry for this.
06:42That press is my life.
06:45I'd kill to protect it.
06:55It's like Mr. Merrick is home.
06:57Ain't that convenient.
07:10Who's there?
07:11Judd, Mr. Merrick.
07:16What can I do for you, Mr. Merrick?
07:18I've got a letter for you.
07:21What do you want?
07:23Something out here I gotta show you.
07:45Somebody will swing on the gallows for this.
07:48Let's get out of here.
07:51Drop that hammer, you fool!
08:10You lose something?
08:12My hammer. I thought I put it by the press yesterday.
08:15Seems to have walked off.
08:17Maybe Papoose take off to play with.
08:20Teddy wouldn't touch my tools.
08:22Oh, well. It'll turn up sooner or later.
08:24Before you lose yourself in your metal alphabet again, Mr. Peel...
08:28You might as well know that me and Chingage Cook didn't just come here to deliver your type.
08:32The commissioner general of all the colonies doesn't like anyone selling whiskey to the Indians.
08:36Even in the smallest settlements.
08:38So he gave us the job of finding out if what you wrote to Ben Franklin is true.
08:43It is.
08:44There's somebody getting rich doing it.
08:46You know a white man who sells fire water to Indians?
08:49As my brother-in-law Joe said yesterday, nobody knows.
08:53But I aim to keep my paper hammering away till we do.
08:56It appears to me that you'd keep after the district governor to run down any leads you'd have.
09:01Him? Turn his soldiers loose in the woods and they'll all run into each other.
09:06Pa!
09:07What's the matter, Teddy?
09:09Soldiers coming down the street.
09:10What's so exciting about that? They're always walking up and down the streets.
09:13They're coming here!
09:16Nathan Peel?
09:17You know my name, Hicks. Dub is a pompous.
09:19It's my duty to place you under arrest, Mr. Peel.
09:22What for? Fixing my press?
09:24The murder of your brother-in-law, Joseph Merrick.
09:29That's ridiculous. Joe's alive. He was here only yesterday.
09:34That was yesterday, Mr. Peel.
09:36I'm sorry, I've got a warrant. You'll have to come with us.
09:39He hasn't changed a bit.
09:42You'll have to come with us.
09:44It isn't true, Papa.
09:46Of course it isn't, Teddy.
09:55Pa!
10:03White soldier come. Pick up body. Boot tracks cover all trail.
10:08Yeah, they're headed right back to town.
10:13Hawkeye.
10:16Two men go into woods.
10:19These prints aren't as fresh made as the others.
10:23Man who make newspaper is small. Not leave big track like this.
10:28From the looks of them, they've been there since last night.
10:42Hawkeye, they in much hurry to get away.
10:45Take long footsteps. That is track of killer.
10:48Not man who make newspaper.
10:50I'm just as sure as you that Mr. Peel didn't do it.
10:53But it's sort of difficult convincing a judge and jury with just footprints.
11:02It was my orders, Mrs. Joe. The governor ain't seen nobody.
11:05But I just want permission to speak to Nathan.
11:08The governor don't see nobody without they write a letter first.
11:10I just gone home.
11:11My husband's in jail. I'm not gonna waste any time writing letters.
11:17Skirmishing with a woman isn't good military manners, soldier.
11:20Hawkeye.
11:25I've been waiting for hours to get permission to visit Nathan.
11:28I'd like to see him too.
11:30You all have to leave.
11:32I'd like to hear that from the district governor himself.
11:35I got my orders.
11:36Soldier, you tell Governor Roberts that Hawkeye and Chingagook,
11:39representatives of the commissioner general,
11:41want to see him on official business.
11:43Yes, sir.
11:52You finally got rid of that woman I see.
11:54No, sir. She's outside now with two men.
11:57The one who delivered the type to Nathan Peel.
11:59I'm too busy to see anyone.
12:01But, sir, the scout ordered me...
12:02You heard my order.
12:03If he didn't, you ought to muster him out of the service for being deaf.
12:06My office isn't a forest trail to stroll around in.
12:09Escort them out.
12:10Sir, I'd like to report...
12:12Hicks, I don't care what you like. You just obey orders.
12:15It appears to me your bellowin won't allow him to.
12:18Now go ahead, Hicks. Report.
12:21Yes, Hicks. Go ahead.
12:23Sir, I beg to report that Hawkeye and Chingagook,
12:26representatives of the commissioner general,
12:29would like to see you on official business.
12:31Hawkeye? Oh, I've heard of him.
12:33Gentlemen, forgive me. Depressed of my official business, you know.
12:37Fetch the lady a chair and resume your post.
12:46I'm saddled with the most incompetent military.
12:49I'm at your service, Hawkeye.
12:51Mrs. Peel here would like permission to see her husband.
12:54Rather irregular. He's charged with murder, you know.
12:57Charged, but not found guilty yet.
12:59From the evidence I've looked over, a mere formality.
13:02He's innocent. Nathan never was a man of violence.
13:05I admire your loyalty, madam.
13:07But according to witnesses, there was certainly violence
13:10when Joseph Merrick was ejected from your husband's shop.
13:13I did that.
13:14It wasn't you who vowed to kill Merrick. It was Peel.
13:17That's not enough evidence to hang a dog, let alone a man.
13:20Perhaps not. But dogs don't carry hammers.
13:23Hammer's heavy enough to crack a man's skull.
13:25Maybe you'd better explain that, governor.
13:27The hammer that killed Merrick was lying beside his body.
13:30Peel admits the hammer belonged to him.
13:32That he was in possession of it until last night.
13:36Certainly evidence enough to hang a dog, Hawkeye.
13:39And, I think, evidence enough to hang a man as well.
13:43Nathan Peel's not a murderer.
13:45If Peel didn't kill him, perhaps you can tell me who did.
13:48Give Chingichka and me a little time, and maybe we can.
13:51You have time. Till dawn tomorrow morning.
13:54You're hanging Peel in the morning?
13:56Here in the wilderness, maintaining law and order is a difficult task at best.
14:01The only way I can accomplish it is by making sure that justice is swift.
14:06Even if you hang the wrong man?
14:08Unless you prove otherwise, I'm forced to believe that it's the right man.
14:12Hicks!
14:14Escort the gentleman and the lady to Nathan Peel.
14:17After you, please.
14:25Not bad.
14:29You'd better save some of that for the rest of the tribe.
14:32You bring plenty more.
14:34As long as you keep the silver coming, I'll get you all the fire water you can drink.
14:44I'm going to get some water.
14:46I'm going to get some water.
14:48I'm going to get some water.
14:50I'm going to get some water.
14:52I'm going to get some water.
14:59White man with long rifle, Mohican, come.
15:03Hawkeye and Chingichka, don't you let on I've been here.
15:15Are you Red Fox?
15:17Me Red Fox.
15:19Have a drink. Good medicine.
15:21Bad medicine for Indian.
15:23You got any more of that medicine around here?
15:27No.
15:29Did you buy it in town?
15:31No.
15:32Me find it.
15:34Where?
15:35In bush.
15:37Medicine bush.
15:41Must take a lot of silver to keep that bush growing.
15:44Who care? Me got lots of...
15:48You know, Red Fox, it's against the law for a white man to sell you that whiskey.
15:52And it's against the law for you to buy it.
15:54Me no buy.
15:56Me find bottle.
15:58Oh.
16:00I fear bad.
16:02You go.
16:04You'll feel a whole lot worse if you guzzle the rest of that stuff.
16:08They break bottle.
16:10Me no like.
16:12They're staying at the printer's office.
16:15They could make you a heap of trouble, Red Fox.
16:18And you'd never get any more fire water.
16:21Unless you do something about it.
16:24Me do something.
16:38The governor's gonna hang Nathan Hawkeye in only a matter of hours.
16:42You gotta stop him.
16:44We've got nothing to stop him with, Mrs. Peel.
16:46Not yet.
16:47Me go find Red Fox.
16:49Make him tell where he get fire water.
16:51Drunk as he was, no telling how long it'd be before we could find him and get him to talk.
16:55White man wrong.
17:02Me let gun talk.
17:05You pull that trigger, Red Fox, and you'll swing by your neck till you're dead.
17:09Maybe getting rid of you is what the people who sold you that whiskey have in mind.
17:13Same as they fixed up the printer.
17:15White man no fool, Red Fox.
17:18Me kill all of you.
17:20But we are good friends.
17:23You, you know my friend.
17:27Suppose we gave you whiskey.
17:29All you can drink.
17:30Wouldn't that prove that we're your friends?
17:32Where whiskey?
17:34Here.
17:37No more whiskey for Red Fox.
17:39But Chingichgook, he's our friend.
17:47What it say on bottle?
17:49Well, it's a, it's a kind of a whiskey.
17:55No smell like whiskey.
17:57Well, it's a special kind.
17:59As strong as you can get.
18:01What it called?
18:03Turpentine.
18:04Me no hear about turpentine.
18:07Is good whiskey.
18:08Made from pine tree.
18:10Oh, pine tree good.
18:12Make good medicine.
18:28You give gun, maybe hurt some.
18:34First time me see Indian drink real fire water.
18:37Maybe now not talk for long time.
18:40I got an idea in the back of my head.
18:42Maybe it won't make any difference whether he talks or not.
18:44As long as he's not hard of hearing.
18:46Let's put him in the store room.
18:55Hand me that list of names, Chingichgook.
18:57I want to make sure all those whiskey sellers are right here on the front page.
19:02Commissioner General be much happy when all are in jail.
19:06If the settlers here don't get Adam first.
19:09We'll put the name of Joe Merrick's murderer in bigger type.
19:15We better speed it up.
19:17We want to deliver a copy of this newspaper to everybody before dark.
19:24Maybe we better start with the folks at the far end of the north trail.
19:29Bird fly away.
19:31If I know my birds, before long this one will be chirping into the ears of the men behind all this wrong doing.
19:37You're brave men.
19:39Deliberately walking into a lion's den for a man who's practically a stranger to the both of you.
19:44I'm not afraid of you.
19:46I'm afraid of you.
19:48I'm afraid of you.
19:50I'm afraid of you.
19:52I'm afraid of you.
19:54I'm afraid of you.
19:56A man who's practically a stranger to the both of you.
19:59It's not just the man, it's what he stands for.
20:02The way we figure freedom of the press is one of the things worth fighting for.
20:07Scott and Mohican make newspaper.
20:09They give it to everybody today.
20:11We're gonna stop them.
20:13They start outside of town in north.
20:15Fine. We'll arrange a little reception committee for them.
20:18This time I'll head it.
20:20I intend to be very sure that our new printers have a very short career.
20:26Why are you stopping, my brother?
20:33Up ahead.
20:34If you wanted to ambush somebody, station your men around that bend, it'd be a pretty
20:38good idea.
20:40Much good idea.
20:42We don't know exactly where we are, and we won't know until they open fire.
20:46Maybe we ought to give them something to shoot at.
20:50Better it not be us.
20:52Let's just send a wagon through.
20:54That ought to get them started.
20:55Uh-huh.
20:56Yah!
20:57Get up in there!
20:59Yah!
21:00Get up in there!
21:28Hold your fire!
21:46There's no one riding that wagon.
21:47Must be riding inside.
22:17We'd better get out of here.
22:25We ain't no match for that scout and his engine.
22:27No, you can't find it, fool.
22:28If they live to testify, we'll all hang.
22:30Not if we start running now and keep running.
22:32But I can't run.
22:33I'm the district governor.
22:34All right, then.
22:35Stay.
22:36And hang.
22:37I told you not to run.
22:47Red Fox, stay and fight!
22:55Hold it!
23:14Zip your lips.
23:15Get him a stick.
23:16Come here.
23:17Hold it!
23:18All right, down with the red fox.
23:19All right.
23:20Now, r body to the field.
23:21Jack's on the field.
23:22Keep up.
23:23Good.
23:24The youth and the city are on the field.
23:25Now, Zip the lips.
23:26All right, Zip your lips.
23:27You're gonna put your mouth on it.
23:28Go ahead.
23:29Oh, nice to see you.
23:30Call me, Zip.
23:31Come on.
23:32A criminal governor is slain by own men.
23:33Citizen's committee, headed by Nadine Peel to take over until new governor appointed.
23:34It's a mighty fine looking paper, Mr. Peel.
23:36Say, do you mind if I take a copy back to the Capitol with me?
23:37Mr. Peel, it's men like you who believe in the truth who are going to keep this country free.
23:42Goodbye.
23:43Goodbye, Mrs. Peel.
23:44Goodbye.
23:45Goodbye.
23:51Hey, it's good.
23:52What are you doing with this turpentine?
23:54Me no Indian brave.
23:56Drink too much fire water.
23:58We cure him quick.
24:00Join us again at this same time next week for another of James Fenimore Cooper's gripping
24:11tales of the early American frontier.
24:14Another exciting adventure of Hawkeye and his blood brother Chinguchkuk.
24:19Last of the Mohicans.