Having only seen the 1990s version of this story and not having read the book, I can't say how true this film is to Cooper's vision so you'd have to look to other posters for that. I will say that it feels much more dark and brooding than the later version. Maurice Tourneur's visuals are wonderful, taking in the vistas of the West and framing the drama of the characters on an appropriately vast scale.
Here we have the story of 2 sisters, dark haired and resolute Cora (Barbara Bedford) and fair haired and similarly gentle in demeanor Alice (Lillian Hall), who are caught up in the violence of the French and Indian War because their father (James Gordon) commands a fort on the frontier. Cora finds her protector in a Native Mohican hunter named Uncas (Alan Roscoe) who manages to rescue her from the clutches of the conniving Magua (Wallace Beery). There is treachery on the part of both the English and the Indians, and the film takes pains to show that the Indians are not inherently evil but mislead by greedy white men and the unscrupulous Magua.
The performances in this film, with the exception of Wallace Beery, are for the most part very restrained and emotive as opposed to some of the more expressive styles of silent acting that you saw a lot in the late teens. Beery is way over the top but that's presumably the way the directors wanted him to be. There's one shot where he completely goes ape-wild and jumps at the camera with his mouth and eyes wide open, the total "savage" image designed apparently to startle audiences who'd rather keep a character like Magua at arm's length. Bedford's face is really remarkable, so much expression and fragility. Roscoe is somewhat less well cast, not simply because of the racial issues but just because he looks a bit too old to be the romantic he's being described as here. His acting is good though, and the two have decent chemistry.
I watched the movie mostly to study Maurice Tourneur's technique. I hadn't realized he co-directed it with Clarence Brown, his protégé, until I saw his name on the credits. I can't really assess what kind of role Brown played because the film doesn't show any kind of divisions and most of the visual style that I picked up on were things that I recognized from previous Tourneur films. Tourneur and Brown always worked together in those years officially or unofficially though is my understanding. Twice in the film we see what is the most distinctive type of shot that Tourneur uses at least in his silent American films, a dark silhouette framed by a triangular shaped cave opening behind which sprawls an epic landscape. The same type of shot was used to great effect in his version of "Treasure Island" and has been imitated or payed homage to in dozens of films. You can see variations of it in many of his films; for example in "Victory" he has this really striking shot of a fisherman on the shore, with his body and his rod pushed to the extreme edge of the frame and a large sea ship passing in the distance framed against a dark triangular rock. Also as in "Victory" of the previous year 1919, in "Mohicans" the most brutal violence is handled in a foreground silhouette, which produces a stylized effect very similar to what you would see in a modern graphic novel. Generally speaking, Tourneur was a master at shooting perspective in the outdoors, and the photography that Philip Du Bois and Charles Van Enger did in what looks like Yosemite Valley is some of the most impressive that you will see in any film.
I can't hugely recommend the movie because it's so tragic and I'm just not crazy about that type of story, although I think it was done in a less melodramatic and more impressionistic way than in the other version I've seen. It's a relief not to be forced to sit through the "dialog" of these two lovers; in this particular story I think it's a lot stronger for the feelings to be left unsaid.
Here we have the story of 2 sisters, dark haired and resolute Cora (Barbara Bedford) and fair haired and similarly gentle in demeanor Alice (Lillian Hall), who are caught up in the violence of the French and Indian War because their father (James Gordon) commands a fort on the frontier. Cora finds her protector in a Native Mohican hunter named Uncas (Alan Roscoe) who manages to rescue her from the clutches of the conniving Magua (Wallace Beery). There is treachery on the part of both the English and the Indians, and the film takes pains to show that the Indians are not inherently evil but mislead by greedy white men and the unscrupulous Magua.
The performances in this film, with the exception of Wallace Beery, are for the most part very restrained and emotive as opposed to some of the more expressive styles of silent acting that you saw a lot in the late teens. Beery is way over the top but that's presumably the way the directors wanted him to be. There's one shot where he completely goes ape-wild and jumps at the camera with his mouth and eyes wide open, the total "savage" image designed apparently to startle audiences who'd rather keep a character like Magua at arm's length. Bedford's face is really remarkable, so much expression and fragility. Roscoe is somewhat less well cast, not simply because of the racial issues but just because he looks a bit too old to be the romantic he's being described as here. His acting is good though, and the two have decent chemistry.
I watched the movie mostly to study Maurice Tourneur's technique. I hadn't realized he co-directed it with Clarence Brown, his protégé, until I saw his name on the credits. I can't really assess what kind of role Brown played because the film doesn't show any kind of divisions and most of the visual style that I picked up on were things that I recognized from previous Tourneur films. Tourneur and Brown always worked together in those years officially or unofficially though is my understanding. Twice in the film we see what is the most distinctive type of shot that Tourneur uses at least in his silent American films, a dark silhouette framed by a triangular shaped cave opening behind which sprawls an epic landscape. The same type of shot was used to great effect in his version of "Treasure Island" and has been imitated or payed homage to in dozens of films. You can see variations of it in many of his films; for example in "Victory" he has this really striking shot of a fisherman on the shore, with his body and his rod pushed to the extreme edge of the frame and a large sea ship passing in the distance framed against a dark triangular rock. Also as in "Victory" of the previous year 1919, in "Mohicans" the most brutal violence is handled in a foreground silhouette, which produces a stylized effect very similar to what you would see in a modern graphic novel. Generally speaking, Tourneur was a master at shooting perspective in the outdoors, and the photography that Philip Du Bois and Charles Van Enger did in what looks like Yosemite Valley is some of the most impressive that you will see in any film.
I can't hugely recommend the movie because it's so tragic and I'm just not crazy about that type of story, although I think it was done in a less melodramatic and more impressionistic way than in the other version I've seen. It's a relief not to be forced to sit through the "dialog" of these two lovers; in this particular story I think it's a lot stronger for the feelings to be left unsaid.