North West Mounted Police (1940)

Paramount Pictures

Director: Cecil B. DeMille

Starring: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll

Honors:

Best Editing

Director Cecil B. DeMille finally gets to play his hand on a Technicolor feature film. The film stars Gary Cooper, perhaps the fastest rising leading man in westerns, as a cowboy who chases a wanted man into Canada where he must team up with the famed Mounties in a very different kind of western. However the teaming of these two large names would with the extravagance of a color feature, though a huge hit for its time, would not pan out as the epic motion pictures DeMille would be known for in his illustrious career. The film takes us north of the boarder on an adventure that many Americans would not connect with.

North West Mounted Police is a western where a Texas Ranger travels to western Canada to apprehend a wanted man and finds himself in the middle of a large uprising in the wild, untamed lands of Canada’s version of the Wild West. Dusty Rivers (Gary Cooper) is a Texas Ranger that in pursuit of a wanted man from his home state leading him to the Canadian version of the western fortier where he must join forces with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (many may know simply as “The Mounties”) to quell a rebellion from “half-breeds” (a mixed race of European colonists and Native Americans) in order to arrest his man. A B-story to the overall film is of Dusty’s relationship with a beautiful nurse April Logan (Madeleine Carroll) who is already in a relationship with Mountie Jim Britt (Preston Foster). Despite her new found relationship with Dusty, April wants to remain loyal to her man. April is also bothered due to her brother, and fellow Mountie, Ronnie (Robert Preston) becomes emotionally involves with one of the untrustworthy half-breedd’s which ends up being a complicated relationship of lust, mistrust, and ultimately the loss of his life. In the end the hero, catches his criminal, the rebellion is squashed, and Dusty blesses April and Jim’s relationship as he leaves for Texas with his prisoner.

The film is a bit mixed up in its three intertwined story arches that makes for a melodramatic western with two less-than-believable romance tales all mixed up in one poor script. Along with the use of a possibly poor writing from the beginning the acting would not be up to par for the cast of actors who have all given better performances in other features. The villianous people of the picture who are an interesting mix of European and Native American blood which the film displays in an odd mix of two stereotypes rolled into one. These people are presented as half savages, especially from the odd performance given by Paulette Goddard, while at the same time given half-French accents (which I did not think was possible). The picture is a product of the time period with less worldly education and lack of political correctness in a serious drama/western/action film that made palatable for spectators during 1940, but not for audiences of later decades.

The feature marked DeMille’s first use of Technicolor, which is marred by the unepic-like scope of the production. DeMille’s name was synonymous with epic spectaculars usually utilizing grand images, huge sets, and massive crowds to add to the grandeur of his period pieces or famed biblical epics. However here in North West Mounted Police it is painful to see how the picture is obviously contained to soundstages made to appear as external locations. This is accented by the few exterior filmed shots that are severely sized-down scope from the usual DeMille style. Not to say a good picture cannot be made on indoor stages, but DeMille’s vision is obviously hindered by what was perhaps concessions of working on smaller, more contained sets for the sake of producing his picture in Technicolor, assuming it was a budgetary choice.

The film features a series of well thought of actors in cinema history in what can be retrospectively thought as not their best roles in their careers. Headlining the picture is Gary Cooper who was sliding into the title of the biggest leading man in westerns at the time. Cooper turned down the chance of leading man in Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent for the role as Dusty Rivers (a name jokingly referred to as an oxymoron in the feature) with the lesser known Joel McCrae, a move that worked for both actors and kept Cooper in westerns for 1940. With his performance in The Westerner and here in North West Mounted Police Cooper was clearly making his own statement that he was determined to be the man of the genre.

English born actress Madeleine Carroll plays Dusty’s love interest in a forced love story that actually goes nowhere, because she remains faithful to her man throughout, making for a pointless plotline. Paulette Goddard appears as Louvette, the half breed who seduces Ronnie, April’s brother, into an even odder relationship. Louvette’s character at all times appears to be not on the level, but this upright officer falls for her anyway. Goddard was a risky choice for the part, but her commitment when she auditioned by coming in full costume and make-up won her the role.

The supporting male cast contains Preston Foster, Robert Preston, George Bancroft, Francis McDonald, and Walter Hampden. Most of these men were past their primes or better known from working on stage. Robert Preston, who was 22 at the time, was a near couple decades away from the role that defined his career as the Harold Hill in the Music Man.

The features manifests the usual political incorrectness that westerns usually had during much of the twentieth century, but puts it in a location that made for an odd mix for some audiences. Canada was known as the great noble neighbors to the north for the United States and the Mounties were the essential parallel to the proud Texas Rangers of American lore. However the cross over that this feature put them through would not lead to more Mountie pictures down the line.

Audiences would come to watch this prestige picture of Paramount’s in great numbers, becoming the studio’s biggest box office draw in 1940, therefore it was deemed success. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, and came away with the prize for Best Editing. This example of outpouring of money and acclaim shows how some films are a successful because it was a right mix of time, names associated to the project, and what was popular at the time of its release. Color was a big audience draw as Technicolor made images more vibrant and detailed than ever for motion pictures, and the high cost that come with it meant studios saved the use of color for their larger pictures they believe will make back their money the best. Therefore North West Mounted Police was the big picture of the the time and audiences would have to see it.

Time would not be kind to North West Mounted Police as it would become obvious the lacking in quality of the picture’s plot, acting, art decoration, and overall appeal of a film. Later critics looking back on the feature commonly give it poor reviews and even name the movie as one of the worst pictures produced as even seen in the 1978 book “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.”

It is a rather sad case to see a picture with such promising names attached to it to become such a letdown of a feature to watch. DeMille, Cooper, Carroll, and Goddard all have been a part of much better features. This one just fails to be good right from the start, but keeping the picture in perspective it was a success of timing, names, and use of color, but not much else can be said beyond that.