Hiawatha (film)
| Hiawatha | |
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Movie poster
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| Directed by | Kurt Neumann |
| Produced by | Walter Mirisch |
| Screenplay by | Arthur Strawn and Dan Ullman |
| Based on | Epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
| Starring |
Vincent Edwards Yvette Dugay |
| Music by |
Marlin Skiles orchestrations by Lloyd Basham |
| Cinematography | Harry Neumann, A.S.C. |
| Edited by | Walter Hannemann, A.C.E. |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Allied Artists Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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80 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Hiawatha is a 1952 American film based on the 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, centering on Native Americans in pre-Columbian times. Directed by Kurt Neumann, with stars Vincent Edwards and Yvette Dugay, it became the final feature produced by the low-budget Monogram Pictures, a mainstay of Hollywood's Poverty Row.
Hiawatha, a member of the Ojibway tribe, is on a peace mission to the Dakotah tribe. He meets and falls in love with Minnehaha. The romance is obstructed by a threatened war between the two tribes, instigated by a hot-headed Ojibway tribe member. The war is averted and Hiawatha learns that he is actually the long-missing son of the Dakotah chief.
Hiawatha's original production planning schedule, in early 1950, was reported by Time magazine in September to have been put on hold due to the main character being a proponent of pacifism and speaking dialog "too close, for current U.S. taste, to the Communist 'peace' line". At the same time, the Los Angeles newspaper Illustrated Daily News, whose publisher, Manchester Boddy, was in the midst of an ultimately losing campaign for nomination as a strongly anti-Communist candidate in the California United States Senate election, published an interview with Monogram Pictures president Steve Broidy who stated that, "because of the tremendous influence that the motion picture industry exerts internationally, producers are being extremely cautious in preventing any subject matter to reach the screen which might possibly be interpreted as Communistic propaganda to even the slightest degree. The Hiawatha screenplay, written by a scenarist whose Americanism is unquestioned, still left us with the feeling that Communistic elements might conceivably misinterpret the theme of our picture, despite its American origin, and that is why we have postponed its production."
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