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The building of the Canadian Pacific railway was as much a milestone in the history of Canada as the transcontinental railroad in the United States of America. But the circumstances were so incredibly different the Canadians must have had a laugh and a half at this Hollywood story of one of the great events from their history.

The great challenge of the railroad was getting it through just that last stretch of mountains in British Columbia. The track went through a mountain trail known as Kicking Horse Pass and it was quite the engineering feat. That was the main story with the building of the Canadian Pacific.

But we have here is the plot of Union Pacific essentially brought under the Maple Leaf with villain Victor Jory stirring up the Indians to prevent the Canadian Pacific from getting through. Of course since he's up against chief engineer Randolph Scott, you know how this is going to come out.

Randy as was the case in a lot of his westerns has two girls to choose from, railroad brat Nancy Olson and Quaker doctor Jane Wyatt. I really think Wyatt was a bit ridiculous pushing her pacifist beliefs in the middle of the Indian attack at the climax.

On the plus side that Indian attack is one of the best I've ever seen in a western and you will be on the edge of your seat during the final shootout between Randolph Scott and Victor Jory. Also look for a good performance from the always dependable J. Carrol Naish as the locomotive engineer and Scott's sidekick. Also Dick Wessel as a murderous bartender is also quite good.

Too bad that this particular episode in Canadian history got Americanized though.

As has been pointed out, this is a highly imaginative account of the building of the Canadian Pacific. Perhaps the Scott character is based on Major Albert Bowman Rogers who, Wikipedia tells us, was tasked with finding a route through the Selkirk Mountains. The CPR promised him a cheque for $5,000 and that the pass would be named in his honour. Rogers became obsessed with finding such a pass and discovered it in April 1881.

I saw it some years ago on British TV and have just watched it again courtesy of a slightly fuzzy copy on YouTube. Just about the only scenes I recalled were Scott's miraculous escape from the dynamite explosion (not completely impossible, I understand), the bandage on Scott's head that shifted in the same scene, and Dynamite Dawson's escape from the Indians.

The blood transfusion scene (in a moving train that was remarkably stable) was perhaps a bit ahead of its time. By the late 19th century, blood transfusion was still regarded as a risky and dubious procedure, and was largely shunned by the medical establishment.

Scott, in his early fifties, again has two far young women vying for his affections, but he was still a good-looking guy.

I enjoy these American "building-a-railroad" films, and this was good entertainment.

Randolph Scott drives the railroad through the Rocky mountains, fighting off Indians and trappers every inch of the way, as well as juggling two women - wildcat Nancy Olsen and pacifist doctor Jane Wyatt. Victor Jory is his usual villainous self, trying to stop the railroad, and almost kills Scott in an explosive sequence.

Love railroad westerns, and though its tendency for melodrama can over shadow the plot, it's an entertaining saga of building a railroad. Yes, it's not historically accurate, but was never meant to be. It's just good entertainment with great scenery and some good action - the finale is rip roaring. An outdoor adventure they sadly don't make anymore.

In the opening of the film there is a scene of a modern steam-powered freight train leaving Calgary, and there the accuracy comes to an end. This film is supposed to be based on the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but it's pure Hollywood hokum. Nobody did their homework. There is the usual shoot-outs, gun battles, renegade Indians, "bad guys," sabotage, and the "romantic angle." None of these things happened during the building of the Canadian Pacific; the ever-present Mounties saw to it. In defense of the film it is a typical out-of-the-file story. Not good, but not that bad either. Randolph Scott is good (Randolph Scott was always good!) If you're looking for a Saturday-afternoon-matinée Western, this one will do. If you're looking for an accurate story of the building of the Canadian Pacific, forget it.

This Canadian western is filmed in Cinecolor, an early and not very effective attempt at colour.

Randolph Scott is a surveyor for the railway and the locals attempt to stop the railway by stirring the Red Indians.

Already with a fiancé, a keen and ripe local, Scott shacks up with a doctor working on the line. She gives him her blood after an incident, fortunately the same type as he lives rather than dying in screaming agony.

But she's a dud, cos her fancy university learnin' has taught her to hate fightin' and shootin'.

Okay. I read all 18 user reviews on IMDb before watching this film and gathered it didn't have much of a fan club should I say! However I am quite early in my Randolph Scott journey so still decided to give it a try.

The story very briefly is the construction of the Canadian Pacific railway in the late 1800's linking provinces of Canada blocked off geographically by great mountain ranges and being dogged by local opposition in the form of native Indians and some white locals.

The film also provides a very basic grasp, some may say inaccurate grasp of the political divide amongst the Canadian provinces etc. But all that is for other resources.

Randolph Scott plays a surveyor (Tom Andrews) for the railway construction company as being a sort of heavy troubleshooter it appears however his work is being distracted by a love triangle with two female characters, his girlfriend (Nancy Olsen) and a female doctor who at one stage saves his life played by Jane Wyatt. The Dr. Is very anti-violence it appears and her influence has an affect on Andrews work practices. Again all this information is available elsewhere.

Now one element of the film I found fascinating was its restoration work. It was filmed in 1949 using an outdated basic colour system called Cinecolor which provided a challenge to the film's restoration and does still show up as a very reddy colour palette?

A good music score is provided by famed musical composer Dimitri Tiomkin.

Okay the film may have some historical inaccuracies with regard to Canadian history. I mean there are no Chinese workers etc. However it is still an enjoyable film. It's location of Canada is a far cry from the usual southern United States locales of 'Western' genre films. I would call it a semi-Western!

Generally, one has to read only "starring Randolph Scott" to know one is about to experience cinematic pleasure.

This film is different -- only in that Scott's character, Tom Andrews, has a double romance and is tempted to give up his fists and guns.

His first romance is with an intriguing character, a wild young woman who is so obviously smitten with Tom we are made happier by basking in her love.

Watching Nancy Olson in that role, I marveled at the strength she gave the character, Cecille Gautier. She also gave dimension, and beauty, and made Cecille someone we had to support.

As Tom gets involved with Dr. Edith Cabot, played by Jane Wyatt, who has probably never looked lovelier, we wonder which of the two women will lose.

The romance, though, is a sub-plot, and the major plot is the battle to complete the railroad, a battle against the elements and seasons, and against topography -- that spectacular scenery that even today lures tourists by the millions -- and against humans, some of whom are nefarious, some of whom are merely trying to protect their traditional way of life.

Besides the stars, cameo bits by such outstanding players as Earle Hodgins and Edmund Cobb and the incredibly prolific George Chandler (more than 400 roles!) make "Canadian Pacific" a great movie.

John Hamilton, with more than 300 roles to his credit, was usually seen as a police officer or judge or, most famously, the irascible Perry White in the "Superman" TV series. Here he shows his actor's range playing a peace-seeking priest.

The script, from a story by Jack DeWitt, and written by DeWitt and Kenneth Garnet, really fleshes out the characters, especially in the beginning with some charming dialog.

The music, by Dimitri Tiomkin, is something different from him, especially at the beginning, but is, of course, great. It is, after all, by Tiomkin.

The print I saw, recently televised by Turner Classic Movies, was not in great shape, and the sound had a wobble to it, but the movie was so good, the problems became very minor.

An acceptable and passable Western with adequate interpretations, spectacular exteriors and solid sets .After finding a vital pass through the Canadian Rockies for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, Tom Andrews (Randolph Scott) tells his boss Cornelius Van Horne (Roger Barrat) that he is resigning to marry the girl he loves, Cecille Gautier (Nancy Olsen who still lives). But thing go wrong when Tom become attracted to the new female doctor, Edith Cabot (Jane Wyatt), who's arrived with the hospital car. The surveyor for the Canadian Pacific Railroad must fight Indians, settlers and fur trappers who oppose the building of the railroad by stirring up a rebellion. Men and women untamed as the savage wilderness ...with bare hands they fought off wild Indians, and conquered a continent! . It's Terrific !. A Land to be Conquered...A Love to be Won!. The blazing saga of untamed men and a savage wilderness!

Passable western with good cast in in which starring Randolph Scott fights in hopes a better life and stifle conflicts, while builds the railway, but encounter problems instead. It is a medium budget movie with thrills, noisy action, shootouts, as well as fine players, nice production design and pleasing results. It is still a routine entry in Western genre, set when railway expanded in Canada in which Scott plays a construction boss working on laying the Canadian Pacific Railroad across Western Canada and through the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia to find a pass through the Rockies. A tired old western plot about bad hats out to stop the building of the railroad, is given a lift by the good interpretations in this action adventure. The picture is well starred by Randolph Scott. He was a prolific actor in Western, his career is divided in films directed by Budd Boetticher in Seven men from now, The tall T, Decision at sundown, Buchanan rides alone, Comanche station, Westbound. Henry Hathaway as : Heritage of the desert, Wild horse, Sunset Pass, Man of the Forest. Ray Enright directed him in : The spoilers, Trail street, Alburquerque, Coroner creek, Return of the bad men. Andre De Toth directed him in Men in the saddle, Carson city, The stranger wore a gun, Riding shotgun, The bounty hunter. Finally, his main testament, Ride the high country along with Joel MacCrea directed by Sam Peckinpah. Enjoyable performances especially those of Nancy Olsen, spirited in her screen debut as a French-Canadian tomboy and Jane Wyatt as an intrepid frontier doctor. It's hard to believe that craggy old could be fancied by both of these feisty young females, but Hollywood Westerns do tend to ignore usual conventions. A bit on the long side, but that allows room for snarling Victor Jory to properly etch one of his rasping-voiced nasties, along with brief appearances from other illustrious secondaries such as: Robert Barrat , Walter Sande, Don Haggerty, Dick Wessel, John Hamilton and J. Carrol Naish in the very expendable comic relief.

Nicely filmed in a fading Cinecolor by Fred Jackson, partly on location in the Canadian Rockies, although the colour falls down when it leaves the countriside and there are prints in black and white. Evocative and thrilling musical score by the classic composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Well produced by Nat Holt, the motion picture was professionally directed by Edwin L Marin. He directed in sure visual style and he made all kinds of genres, especially Westerns. As he shot various Westerns as Tall in the saddle with John Wayne and Ella Raines, Canadian Pacific, Fighting man of the Plains, Colt 45, Raton pass, The Younger Brothers . Randolph Scott starred his last Westerns until his early death at 53, such as: The Cariboo trail, Sugarfoot, and Fort Worth. Rating: 5.5/10. Decent Western for Randolph Scott enthusiasts.

Very disappointing to Canadians who know a little of their history, this 1940s-style western treats the building of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway as if it had occurred in the U.S., with many mistakes noted elsewhere in this entry, and a heavy dose of the U.S. cultural imperialism so typical of 20th century Hollywood's treatments of other peoples' histories.

The film makes no references to the important political issues and scandals in eastern Canada that surrounded and heavily influenced the building process, nor the important effects of the ever-present French- English-Indian cultural tensions.

A passable B-grade western for an undiscriminating audience.

Many actors owe their careers to Randolph Scott, debuting in one of his westerns and then rising to stardom in the years to come. Lee Marvin, James Coburn, and Mariette Hartley are all included in that group. If you want to see Nancy Olson's "introducing" credit, rent Canadian Pacific. The very next year, she snagged an Oscar nomination for Sunset Blvd. Not bad!

This isn't the best Randolph Scott movie out there, so if you want to watch his really classic westerns, check out the ones he made with his own production company: Scott-Brown Productions. (Those were almost always in Technicolor, which is a bonus.) One feature of this movie that I really enjoyed was the love triangle. At the start of the movie, he's totally in love with Nancy Olson, a girl from the country. Her hair flows free, her love is sweet, and she accepts him the way he is. Her only bone of contention is that he works too much and makes her wait to get married. Then, as the movie continues and focuses more on the less-interesting advent of the Canadian Pacific railway line, Scottie is introduced to a female doctor, Jane Wyatt. Jane is structured and makes him earn her respect and affection. But she's extremely anti-violence and doesn't accept him the way he is. Which will he pick?

If you're really interested in trains, you might like this one better than I did. I would have preferred the whole movie to be Scottie smooching his two girlfriends. Wouldn't that have been fun?

I was never a great fan of Randolph Scott - he never really imposed himself onto the screen, and here he doesn't really either. It doesn't help that the plot is a fairly well trammelled one. He ("Andrews") is the railroad surveyor who falls foul of the local fur traders who fear that the steel monster will decimate local trade. His antagonists are no slouches. "Rourke" (Victory Jory) and "Dynamite Dawson" (J. Carrol Naish) being determined to thwart his engineering plans and so resort to enlisting the help of the local Indians who want no truck with these interlopers at all, much less their destructive construction project that will further destroy their ancestral home. In order to convince the locals that the train would be a good thing for their community, he promises to settle with his gal "Cecille" (the rather wooden Nancy Olson) but that doesn't really cut much ice with an opposition that now has him firmly in it's sights and that sees him soon under the care of local doctor "Edith" (a competent Jane Wyatt) with whom, well you can guess the rest. Indeed, that's really the problem with all of this - it's just too predicable. There is some action now and again and a bit of rousing speechifying too, but for the most part this is an adequately photographed pioneering tale that we've seen a few times before - only with a more charismatic lead. It's watchable, but the title doesn't really help it much and it's all fairly forgettable afternoon cinema fayre.

Canadian Pacific had some major pluses with Randolph Scott at his best, great directing by Edwin L. Marin, a wonderful music score by Dimitri Tiomkin and beautifully filmed on location in the Canadian Rockies. J. Carrol Naish (Dynamite Dawson) was terrific as the storytelling sidekick. Jane Wyatt (Dr. Edith Cabot) in one of her best roles as the woman who tried to change the hardened Scott. Victor Jory, who never disappoints was solid as the villain trying to stop the railroad with his top henchman Cagle (Don Haggerty). However, I think the top performance was Nancy Olson (Cecille Gautier). Olson played the woman caught between many forces. She was in the middle of a war between her people and the railroad men, Scott and his relationship with Wyatt and the love interest of Jory. Other great parts were by Robert Barrat (Cornelius Van Horne), John Parrish (Mr. Gautier), Mary Kent (Mrs. Gautier) and John Hamilton (Pere Lacomb). If that wasn't enough there were great cameos by Earle Hodgins, Edmund Cobb, Lassie's George Chandler and rough-and-tumble Dick Wessel.

This movie is a joke. Its only redeeming feature is the spectacular scenery and Nancy Olson. The rest is a typical B movie Western a really ugly mess. Randolph Scott is laughable as the old surveyor for the CPR and grandpa to Nancy Olson. I guess they researched the history of the building of the railroad and saw there weren't enough bad guys and wild Indians involved and they ignored the Northwest Mounted Police who kept the peace unlike the murdering US cavalry. I wonder what the critics thought of this mess when it first came out. Probably thought it was a real story based on fact. What did they know about the Canadian west?

Say what you will about different times, different morays, but one scene in this film is just outlandish. There is almost no other comedy in this movie, so the scene that would play in a Warner Bros cartoon just hurt to watch.

The majestic backgrounds and period costumes look great. Randolf Scott plays Randolf Scott. Victor Jory plays Victor Jory. Jayne Wyman is better than the rest in depiction of a pacifist doctor.

I'll be honest and say the movie wasn't horrible until the scene I'm referencing that was insulting to Native Americans in any age.

Don't bother reading any further, I'm padding due to some silly character limit.

I would have rated this a 3 but I didn't want to insult all the 3's that came before it. I can not believe that some reviewers actually rated this film? a 9 or 10. Do you people not get out much? Have you never seen a movie that is actually good? Not decent but just good? Scenery was good though. Bad reason to give it a rating higher than 5.

One of the best Edwin Marin's westerns. Colorful, action packed, in the pure line of the Michael Curtiz"s films of the Warner Bros era. Randolh Scott is and always remain Randolph Scott - despite some interesting unusual characters with Budd Boetticher's movies during the late fifties. Here, no surprise but excellent material to watch, in the late forties style. Edwin Marin made several westerns with Randolph Scott, and also some film noirs with George Raft. Marin was a western director in the line of Ray Enright, another western specialist from the forties. Here, it could have been a Ray Enright's film.