Speaking of the just-released Ford at Fox DVD collection, New York's "Vulture" writers have, like me, shared a special liking for Drums Along the Mohawk, one reason being that it's "maybe the only cowboy-and-Indians flick ever set in upstate New York."
But not shot there, of course. The IMDB says Drums was filmed in and around Kanab, Utah, where "more western movies and television programs have been filmed...than in any other single location outside of Hollywood itself," according to a website for Nedra's Cafe in Kanab.
I earlier mistyped the title as Drugs Along the Mohawk. Great title, I thought, so I Googled it. Lo and behold, there was an actual Mohawk Valley drug-dealing operation that was busted in 1999. A 6.9.99 N.Y. Times story reported that police "managed to cripple but not quite destroy the largest cocaine smuggling and selling operation in northern New York State in a series of rapid early morning raids, state and Federal officials said. The raids netted a few prize suspects, including a 24-year-old Mohawk man who, the officials said, ran the drug network from his home here."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 4, 2007 at 1:40 PM
comment #1
Dave
says ...
Well, the characters in Drums aren't cowboys, they're settlers.
And going by that standard, every James Fenimore Cooper adaptation is also a "cowboys-and-indians story set in New York."
Alas, Mann's Last of the Mohicans was shot in North Carolina and not New York, IIRC.
Posted by Dave
at December 4, 2007 2:41 PM
comment #2
lazarus
says ...
Wells: writers strike + Drugs Along the Mohawk = GOLDMINE.
Maybe Marty & Leo can do it in 3-strip technicolor as an homage to Ford.
Posted by lazarus
at December 4, 2007 5:03 PM
comment #3
nemo
says ...
It ain't NY, but it's close: Allegheny Uprising, a John Wayne western set in Pennsylvania.
Posted by nemo
at December 4, 2007 8:05 PM
comment #4
lipranzer
says ...
Eh, I've never been a big fan of DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. The scene where Claudette Colbert follows along to catch sight of Henry Fonda as his platoon is marching out of town is terrific, but the rest of the movie didn't do it for me.
Posted by lipranzer
at December 4, 2007 8:49 PM