The Scalphunters (1968)
Actors:
Sydney Pollack (director),
Elmer Bernstein (composer),
Burt Lancaster (producer),
Paul Picerni (actor),
Armando Silvestre (actor),
Arnold Laven (producer),
Shelley Winters (actress),
Arthur Gardner (producer),
Telly Savalas (actor),
Burt Lancaster (actor),
Ossie Davis (actor),
Chuck Roberson (actor),
Dabney Coleman (actor),
Phill Norman (miscellaneous crew),
'Chema' Hernandez (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: Trapper Joe is on his way to the town with all of his gain of hides of the last winter. However a group of Indians stops him and takes all of his hides, leaving him the escaped slave Joseph instead. But Joe has no use for Joseph and is determined to get his property back and follows them. Before he can do anything, the Indians are raided themselves by a group of scalphunters under the greedy Howie. Not only the hides, but also Joseph falls into their hands. Now Joe follows them alone and tries to trick the numerical superior group out of his hides.
Keywords: african-american, ambush, bare-knuckle-boxing, bare-knuckle-fighting, beating, beaver, beaver-pelt, blonde, brawl, buddy
Genres:
Comedy,
Western,
Taglines: He'll stop at nothing to take back what's his.
Quotes:
Joe Bass: [surfacing out of the river and startling Joseph Lee] Julius Caesar. You're a hell of a dancing man but you sure can't fight.
Joe Bass: [to Joseph Lee] Throw you in a pigpen, and you'd come out vice-president of the hogs.
Kate: [to the other prostitutes as they realize they are captives of the Indians] What the hell, they're only men!
Joe Bass: Scalp hunters. The wickedest, crookedest trade to ever turn a dollar.
Joe Bass: You mean you want to stay with these, with these heathens?
Joe Bass: [to the Indians who are bilking him out of his furs] You're all right, Two Crows. You oughta be a white man. They'd make you captain of the steamboat and president of the bank. Just because you own this damn country!
Joe Bass: What the hell are you standin' there for? Can't you speak English?::Joseph Lee: No, sir!::Joe Bass: Whattaya mean, 'No, sir'?::Joseph Lee: I mean I wish I didn't.
Joseph Lee: [walking behind Joe Bass and his horse] What about me, sir?::Joe Bass: I'll just sell you to the highest bidder.::Joseph Lee: Could you mske that to a Comanche, sir?::Joe Bass: You seem to have an uncommon prejudice against service to the white-skinned race!::Joseph Lee: I don't mean to be narrow in my attitude. Could I ask you what's your name, sir?::Joe Bass: Joe Bass.::Joseph Lee: Well, Mr. Bass, couldn't you kind of consider me a captured Comanche?::Joe Bass: [both Joe Bass and his horse turn around and do a 'take']::Joseph Lee: I came on my own two feet as far as those Comanches. It was my intent to circle south as far as Mexico. The Mexicans have a law against the slavery trade, and since those Indians captured me from other Indians. I have now got full Indian citizenship.::Joe Bass: Joseph Lee, you ever study the law?::Joseph Lee: No, sir.::Joe Bass: Well, neither did I, but you ain't got a chance in hell of calling yerself an Indian! You're an African slave by employment, black by color!
Joe Bass: You ever fight twelve drunk Indians?::Joseph Lee: No, sir, but I'd like to see it done.
Jim Howie: Go get yourself some clothes on! I don't want these men gettin' any horny notions!::Kate: Stop talkin'like a Baptist preacher. If I had half the boots been stuck under my bed, I bet I could outfit the United States Cavalry!