Kit Parker Films, working closely with the film archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has completed a 2K digital scan — from the original 35mm negative — of writer/director Norman Foster’s 1952 Oscar-nominated Navajo. The film will be available on DVD this coming Oct. 13.
Producer Hall Bartlett was a Yale graduate, member of Phi Beta Kappa, who did a little acting work after World War II, drifted into screenwriting and at the behest of his friend, Stanley Kramer, he should think about becoming a film producer.
So, he got together with director Norman Foster, who had directed and wrote a whole string of Mr. Moto films, plus was the director of some Charlie Chan films as well (and a whole lot more), before going down something of a rabbit hole with Orson Welles during World War II (the It’s All True filming debacle in Brazil … but that’s another story). Foster came back to Hollywood and directed Journey Into Fear (produced by Welles) and then right after the war, for some odd reason, made a few Spanish-language films in Mexico.
He had returned to Hollywood, directed both Rachel and the Stranger and Kiss the Blood Off My Hands in 1948 and seemed to have settled back into the Hollywood scene. The guy was a pro, been around forever as an actor, a writer and a director. Bartlett, who had made friends with Foster, talked him to directing a film (he needed to start somewhere), which Foster wrote, with a total budget of just $25,000 … Foster even agreed to work without a fee.
You can’t make this stuff up. They go off to the Navajo Indian Reservation, recruit members of the Navajo Nation to be in the film and get approval to shoot on location at Canyon de Chelly, a small trading post in Chinlee and in Death Canyon. Foster and Bartlett then got cinematographer Virgil Miller to come out of retirement to film their production … he was a long-time pro, with over 150 credits dating all the way back to the silent era, even did the camera work on such popular “B” movies as The Woman in Green, The Mummy’s Curse, The Pearl of Death and Castle in the Desert.
The star of this little project, which was being filmed under the working title of The Voice of the Wind, is a seven-year boy by the name of Francis Kee Teller, who speaks no English and has never seen a movie in his life!!
So, you’ve got a veteran sound stage cinematographer,
working on location with a minimal set-up, a new-producer, a long-time director
and a bunch of amateur actors, including a kid who doesn’t even know what a
movie is. That’s how Bartlett becomes a
film producer.
The story is simple, Son of the Hunter (Teller) tends sheep and one day tells his “grandfather,” Grey Singer (Navajo by the name of John Mitchell), what signs he has seen (an owl, hooting during the day) and this gives Grey Singer the opportunity to give Son of the Hunter lessons in Navajo history. And lessons in not killing snakes and animals as well … be at one with the land.
However, the signs that Son of the Hunter have related to Grey Singer, mean that they must move to a new place. During this trip, which includes Son of the Hunter’s mother and sisters, Grey Singer realizes that he is dying and goes off to do so in the Navajo tradition. When Son of the Hunter arrives at the local trading post, the authorities take him into custody and haul him off to school … he runs away, learns that his mother has died and is now alone in the wilderness and suspicious of the whites who have changed his life all around.
The finished film is a blend between a documentary about Navajo traditions and the adventures — and learning process — of a young Navajo boy. Simple, clean.
Navajo, gets
a theatrical release through Lippert Pictures and when the Oscars were announced,
Bartlett, Foster and Miller were shocked to find that they were nominated …
Best Documentary and Best Cinematography (Foster ended up losing to Robert
Surtees for The Bad and the Beautiful). Reviewers declared Navajo a
work of art, mesmerizing … and Francis Kee Teller received a Golden Globe for
his performance.
Bonus features include, are you ready for this, commentary from Francis Kee Teller … Kit Parker tracked him down and found that after 70 years he was still alive and agreed to the commentary for his only film appearance. If you are a film buff, the commentary alone should be priceless!!!
Other bonus goodies include John F. Jennings’ 1952
documentary, Our Navajo Neighbors,
footage of the publicity tour featuring Francis Kee Teller from 1952, The
Canyon Matters by Genny Yazzie and Deborah Lem’s
“Canyon de Chelly” photo-essay.
And lastly, all of the profits from the DVD release of Navajo are going to charities within the Navajo Nation. Mark it down, Oct. 13 on DVD from Kit Parker Films, Navajo.
