Men of the North

Yes folks this is not an April fool's joke. Some background: in 1930 MGM was profiting by their relationship to Hal Roach Studios by distributing Roach's two reel comedies. Roach Studios could do what MGM could not seem to do - produce funny comedy shorts and supply loan outs of great comedy talents to MGM such as Thelma Todd and, of course, Laurel and Hardy. So in 1930 MGM reciprocated and let Hal Roach stretch his wings and direct an action adventure at their studio. Instead Mr. Roach should have stayed in his own comedy nest.

The film is a bit of a mess, and the whole thing is just so poorly directed. It's obvious MGM just treated this as a throwaway in their budget as a goodwill gesture towards Mr. Roach. None of their A or even B list stars appear in this, and most of the players vanished from sight not long after the transition to sound. The exception - Gilbert Roland as likable Louis Le LeBey, who is suspected of robbing shipments of gold, is hiding gold in his cabin, has a very confused love life, and seems to be on the wrong side of the border - nobody has bothered to coach him to sound French Canadian - as he retains his Spanish accent. Gilbert Roland's performance is the only three dimensional one in the lot as the rest are pure cardboard. I've seen the other players in this film give good performances elsewhere so, once again, this just seems to be a case of bad direction coupled with all of the other problems of early sound film.

Barbara Leonard stars as Nedra, a girl who takes a shine to Louis in spite of the fact her father is one of the robbery victims. Robert Eliot plays a Mountie who seems more like a tough New York policemen dressed up like a Mountie for Halloween. Nina Quartero gives the most bizarre performance of all as she seems to have aspirations to be Louis' girl, yet she both pants over him and spies on him. Then when she's talking to the mounties she tries to hang all over them too.

Watch this one for the "so bad it's good" fun of it all and to see Gilbert Roland develop as a sound actor in spite of the impediments thrown at him here.

It's hard to remember that this was one of the First talkies because the camera work is spectacular! The snow slide was glorious! The love affair is sweet. Jealous girlfriend realistic. Accents aside, this is a fine entertainment flick even by today's standards. I've seen expensive productions that put me to sleep!! Not to forget that Roland is just so handsome! Enjoy

A young Gilbert Roland plays a Metis fur trapper up in the Klondike where he feels a man cheated him out of gold they mined together. The law doesn't see it that way so Roland takes flight.

More soap opera in this story of the frozen north. Roland is caught between two women, pretty Barbara Leonard visiting from Toronto with her father and fellow Metis Nina Quartero. If he kept his mind on business he might have gotten away. Of course we would have no film then.

Hal Roach directed this for MGM. He should have stuck with Stan and Ollie.

Two sacks of gold are missing from a shipment. There has been a series of robberies. Sergeant Mooney (Robert Elliott) suspects slick trader Louis LeBey (Gilbert Roland) who takes a liking to new arrival Nedra Ruskin (Barbara Leonard). Woolie-Woolie (Nina Quartero) gets jealous.

I'm not saying that Gilbert Roland's accent is any good. The sound quality masks some of his difficulties. It's not that thick and I can understand him. He throws in some French words every other line. It's obviously not his native tongue. At least, he has the charisma. I have more problems with Robert Elliott's loose performance. He needs to portray power and authority. He does not. The even bigger problem is Nina Quartero. I think the character is supposed to be a Native Canadian. I couldn't tell from her talking and forget about the wrong ethnic casting. Maybe she's trying for gypsy. Hal Roach is directing but he's not the producer. It's a bit of a mess.

I can only think of one reason to watch this. I had a ball watching Gilbert Roland in the role of a Frenchman. Roland was one of the silent screen's most well known Latin lovers. He does not even TRY to sound like a French speaking character. His strong accent is pure south of the border. Pretty funny stuff. Otherwise embarrassing to all concerned. Moves at a snails pace and once it gets there it just sort of lays down and dies. Directed by Laurel and Hardy's boss Hal Roach for MGM.

Early sound effort that just keeps on talking and talking and talking. The dialog is astoundingly stupid, even for it's day. Good luck with this one.