Baker's Hawk

The Baker of Baker’s Hawk refers to young Lee Harcourt Montgomery who is the son of Clint Walker and Diane Baker who finds an injured hawk in the forest. Montgomery takes what he thinks is a chance and goes to the cabin of Burl Ives who has the reputation of being a crazy man. In truth he’s just an old hermit who likes animals a lot better than people and the people around his part of the west don’t give him any reason to feel differently. But he does warm to young Montgomery and the two of them work on mending the hawk and maybe training it.

The adults have some problems of their own. Clint Walker is standing up against a town who wants to form a vigilante committee because they don’t like certain elements coming into their area.. All under the guise of law and order, mind you. The head vigilante is of all people Alan Young who plays a storekeeper, but who really has no idea what he’s starting. Eventually Walker becomes the deputy for the town to county sheriff Taylor Lacher and that sets everything up for a final confrontation.

Baker’s Hawk is a nice family film with some good teachings about taking the law into your own hands and the consequences that can result. It’s got some nice location cinematography in a couple of national forests located in Utah. And the scenes with Ives and Montgomery and the animals are the best part of the film. Some attractive scenery and a handful of nice moments among the cast are about all this family-oriented film has going for it. To say that it is a TV-level production is a bit of an insult to such beautifully mounted TV westerns as “The Big Valley”, for nowhere in this film can there be found music, lighting or direction to match that or many other fine series.

A Time Of Destiny