John Hart

Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans is a 1957 Western television series made for syndication by ITC Entertainment and Normandie Productions. It ran for one season of 39 half-hour monochrome episodes. The series is available on DVD and some episodes on VHS.

Loosely based on The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, the series was released under several different names, including Hawkeye and The Last of the Mohicans.

The series was set in New York’s Hudson Valley in the 1750s but was filmed in Canada. The end credits state that the series was filmed in Canada with the cooperation of The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The series had a more realistic view of America than most series of the times. The settlers were rough and dressed in old but suitable clothes for the long hard winters in the small settlements of the new frontier. The Native Americans were more realistically portrayed too, as an intelligent people with good and bad individuals among them. Fights in the film needed more than just the odd blow as the opponents hit hard at each other, and torture was used in a number of episodes. Weapons used were normally single shot rifles and tomahawks. Furs were often a motive of crime as they were the currency of the northern settlements.