The Scalphunters is an often silly 1968 Western directed by Sydney Pollack and written by William Norton. It’s interesting and fun, though, and has some merit as a racialist work. Black actor Ossie Davis co-stars in a major role. There is no miscasting here: Davis is a well-educated black man of the 1800s. Shelley Winters is delightful, “nuance” her middle name. Even the limited Burt Lancaster is acceptable as a gruff trader.

By ’68 there was a tasty realism in Western movies, even if The Scalphunters is yet another film more interesting than good.