Covered in mudpacks dried from the sun, the white Burt Lancaster and the black Ossie Davis look exactly alike, ridiculing racists in an era where both the Native American and the black man found themselves fighting for freedom in different ways from the white man. It's the era of slavery, and the era of the American expansion of the west, so for the natives and slaves, it's a fight for survival. Burt Lancaster is amusing as the very determined Joe Bass, a fur trader whose catch is swiped with runaway slave Ossie Davis given to him in exchange. Intending to sell Davis himself as well as get back his furs, he is horrified when he witnesses the scalping of the Indian tribe he's been hunting, and now must switch his tracking of his furs to the ruthless gang led by Telly Savalas. When Davis ends up accidentally captured by Savalas, Lancaster must use his cunning, unaware that Davis is even more cunning than him, using brain, not brawn, to control the situation, even getting in the good favor of the blowzy Shelley Winters (as Savalas's mistress) who longs to settle down "as a lady", something even with her big heart is practically impossible.

Even with the violence and blood, there's a huge element of humor in this, and the fun comes in watching the one-upmanship between Davis and Lancaster. Davis, having been a book reading house slave, is the most intelligent character in the film, having preferred bread and water along with freedom over cake and slavery. While involved in an evil and pointless profession, Savalas shows his signs of civility, treating Winters with respect and love, although an edited sequence indicates that at one point, he gives her a black eye. In fact, the only issue I could find with this film is the continuity, obviously because of issues in the editing room, giving details for an upcoming scene that never happens. But, when you've got a western film like this with all the action going on, there's little to quibble about in the way of keeping your interest. Lancaster is like a doberman with a bone when it comes to getting back his furs, and showing his disgust to the scalping of native Americans also indicates that he's got a moral base underneath his seemingly shallow exterior.

First seen coming out of a covered wagon clad in a ripped negligee and feather boa, Winters is a sight to behold, and the joy that covers her face when Davis turns cactus leaves into shampoo makes you just want to hug her. It seems that she's making up for her cruelty to Sidney Poitier in "A Patch of Blue" with her humanity to Davis here, and she is the most likable and honest (brutally at times) of all the characters. This is indeed a roller coaster ride of a western, and it grabs you right from the very beginning. There are some cartoon like effects when Lancaster and the fairly passive Davis get into a fight, with the cartoon like bird sound appearing out of nowhere as Lancaster gets slugged. Davis is playing a variation of "Purlie" here (his most famous stage and screen role),and delivers an outstanding, beautiful performance that makes you wish he had been more of a movie star than he was. Even in its violence, it will have you laughing, although the violence towards the Indians is itself no laughing matter.

This is a film I really wanted to like. After all, some of the actors were very skilled and the characters they played had some wonderful qualities. Additionally, this movie would have been a great comedy or drama--too bad the writers and director had no sense about which they were going to make! I think the recent success of comedy-Westerns such as CAT BALLOU and THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL impacted this film--but these other films were consistent in their style, while THE SCALPHUNTERS sure wasn't.

Burt Lancaster plays one of the less sympathetic roles of his career. Early on, his huge load of furs is stolen, of sorts, by a group of Indians. What actually occurred is that they took the furs and gave him an escaped Black slave--which Burt did NOT want nor need. He treated Davis mostly like a piece of property, not a man.

Ossie Davis was fun to watch as this well educated Black man, though this was certainly an anachronism--as in most of the South, a Black slave who could read and write would have been hung, as it was against the law to educate a Black person (lest they learn about the real world or the inequity of slavery). To make this situation less believable, Davis knew quite a bit of Latin and about the world--making him smarter than at least 95% of White Americans at this same time in history.

Speaking of time in history, it's very hard to figure out when this film was to have occurred. You know it MUST be pre-Civil War since there is slavery and yet the guns are all repeating rifles and pistols--something you would have had a hard time finding even by the end of the Civil War. Some early cartridge guns had been developed by about 1860, but they were very rare and unreliable and would have almost never been seen in the West. Despite this, you don't see any single-shot guns--only repeating rifles and pistols using cartridges that are circa 1870 and later. Plus, none of these repeaters seem to need reloading!

Despite all these logical errors and anachronisms, there is a lot to like in the film--and lots of wonderful scenes. Davis' anachronistic character is very likable and he has many great lines. Lancaster, while a thoughtless jerk is also a pretty exciting action hero at times in the film. The relationship between these two is interesting and complex. Plus I liked seeing the relationship between Telly Savalas and Shelley Winters--their dialog was pretty funny at times and how Winters ended the film was rather satisfying.

Unfortunately, all the scenes, when placed together, are a mess and just don't fit together well. Much of this is because the movie moves uncomfortably from action film to comedy--and it's hard to laugh at a comedy about slavery or the massacre of Indians! The best example of this is the ending of the film. After suffering through tons of abuse and ambivalence by Lancaster, Davis has a wonderful scene where he is about to leave Lancaster in the desert and ride off to Mexico for a happy ending--a well-deserved and very rewarding ending I might add. However, oddly, the film did NOT end here but when one for about another ten minutes--and then tried to give a comedic style ending that just didn't fit the film at all. Ending it with Lancaster tied up and Davis wandering off would have been perfect--dragging it on and having a macho mud fight for a laugh was just awful and totally destroyed the impact of the film as social commentary.

Trapper Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) is intercepted by Two Crows and his braves. He is forced to trade all of his furs for an educated slave named Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis). Lee had escaped from Louisiana and captured by one tribe after another. Bass has no use for him as he pursues Two Crows. They track down the Indians and find them attacked by a group of white scalp hunters led by the ruthless Jim Howie (Telly Savalas). The governments are paying $25 for every Indian scalp; men, women, or children. Miss Kate (Shelley Winters) is tired of living on the road with Howie and can't wait to be a Lady in Mexico.

It's a comedic action western. It has its fun. It has its drama. As a buddy western, I would have liked Lancaster and Davis to stay together. I had expected them to run into Two Crows soon after the introduction of the Scalphunters. That's a fun relationship that deserves more time. Sometimes, the comedy is too light. All in all, this is what it is and it's a pretty good western from Sydney Pollack.