Yes, an extremely violent outing and not one that I would recommend, even though it is now available on a DVD of really excellent quality. Indeed the very excellence of the DVD, drives home the terror the early settlers faced from marauding Indians who had no desire to live in peace with the white man but were determined to wipe him out.Fortunately, the acting is none too convincing. I say "fortunately" because some of the events are so blood thirsty, they would be hard to take if their surroundings were too real. It's also fortunate that Bruce Bennett is only moderately convincing as Daniel Boone and that Lon Chaney is even less acceptable as the Indian chief. The movie has two directors. I imagine that one of them did the ho-hum studio scenes and the other all the frisky on-location, action footage.

After Republic lost both John Wayne and its stable of B Picture cowboys to television the studio that Herbert J. Yates built was only marking time until its close. This particular film Daniel Boone, Trailblazer was produced independently and released by Republic and it was clearly an effort to capitalize on the gold mine in coonskin caps that Walt Disney found in Davy Crockett.Some ten years earlier Bruce Bennett might have been a good choice to play Boone in an A picture about his life. It was certainly a long and colorful one. As it is Bennett lends a certain dignity to the proceedings and fits what has come down to us in legend about Boone. He was a modest man in fact who did apparently think that colonists and Indians could abide in the same country. This film has Bennett trying to protect the new settlement of Boonesborough which he founded in the new frontier of Kentucky in 1775. The chief of the Shawnee Lon Chaney, Jr. is being egged on by Tory renegade Simon Girty played by Kem Dibbs who is in the pay of the notorious British commander of the Detroit garrison Colonel Henry Hamilton. Hamilton paid the Indians well for white settler scalps and he'd pay heavy for the scalp of Daniel Boone.Unfortunately Dibbs goes a bit too far in pursuit of his goals and pays in the end. In real life Simon Girty fled to Canada and lived almost as long as Daniel Boone who died in 1820 at the incredible age of 86 for that time.Country&Western singer Faron Young appears here as suitor for the hand of one of Boone's daughters and sings some songs, none of which gained any popularity. The cinematography was probably good in those lush greens of the forest, but the print I saw is in bad need of restoration. But Republic films are way down on the priority list for such work unless they have John Wayne starring in them.Not a bad adventure film from the early American frontier even if it does take a lot of liberties with the facts.

This is a low-budgeted film about the famous adventurer and explorer Daniel Boone (Bruce Bennet) . After the guidance a settlers party from North Caroline to the fertile valley of Kentucky , Boone undergoes several adventures . This time Boone is living along with his wife and sons in Boonesborough , when his eldest son is kidnapped and murdered by the Shawnees Indians . Boone unites a group to track down a carriage full of children that are surrounded by the Indians , but he's taken prisoner and submitted deadly proof ; later on , he escapes . Chief Blackfish (Lon Chaney Jr.) and Boone accord a meeting in the location named Thousand Waterfalls but an Indian masquerading posing as white men threatens the peace . Then , the savage Indians attack the fort Booneesborough .This shoe-string budget movie chronicling the further feats of our frontier hero , displays adventures , action , and spectacular outdoors . Filmed in Mexico and with Mexican actors as secondaries , such as Claudio Brook and Eduardo Noriega , and giving a surprisingly good acting by Lon Chaney Jr. including a touching weeping . Worn-out color , granulated and lousy cinematography , in spite of gorgeous landscapes . The flick was regularly directed by Albert Gannaway , also in charge of production and soundtrack which includes some songs . The film didn't help to spread Boone-mania among the kids of the 50s and 60s . Other adaptations about this frontiersman hero are the followings : the classic version (1934) by David Howard with George O'Brien and John Carradine , and the known TV series with Fess Parker .The picture is partially based on real deeds , the actual events are the followings : Daniel Boone (1734-1820) long hunter , Indian fighter , trail-blazing pioneer and first of the frontier folk heroes was born in Pennsylvania . Moving to North Carolina he settled in the Yadkin Valley , supporting his family by hunting, often making long trips for profitable animal skins . The long hunters were so called because their long wildness hunts might last more than a year . Boone was impressed by the Indian hunting grounds of Kentucky and determined to make his home in this unsettled , fertile land rich with game.The journey was thwarted by hostile Indians who killed six of the party including Boone's eldest son . With a band of hardy woodsmen , Boone set forth and blazed a trail , known as the Wilderness Road , through the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountains to the Kentucky River , where they built a fort named Boonesborough , to which later brought his family and a group of settlers. In January 1778 Boone was captured by Shawnee Indians and adopted into tribe as the foster-son of Chief Blackfish . In June escaped escaped to warn Boonesborough of an impeding Shawnee attack . Frustated by legal nullification of his Kentucky lands claims, Boone moved on to Missouri . Boone died aged eighty-six in his son's farmhouse in Missouri.

This picture is an interesting saga of the struggle of pioneers led by Daniel Boone in the wilderness of Cumberland Gap while being threatened by hostile Indians. A treacherous Frenchman is the cause of all the trouble between the settlers and the red men while Boone tries to convince the Indians that the pioneers only want to build homes and live in peace. The film has a certain appeal because it is not a polished production but there are good action scenes, although somewhat violent for its time. The cast is comprised of B actors but they are all good, especially Lon Chaney as the Indian chief. Bruce Bennett is okay as Boone but is a bit too clean cut and soft spoken to be believable as a frontiersman. The dialogue is rather trite but the scenery lends itself to the realism of the Kentucky backwoods.