Les trappeurs de l'Hudson

Seems they got the costumes more or less right and certainly the names but that's about it. Muni is unbearable in the lead role of adventureous rogue fur trapper Pierre Radisson , attempting financing for an expedition to Hudson's Bay. His eyes , hands , body, in constant exagerrated motion, it's a bit like watching Charlie McCarthy in buckskin. Laird Creager is a little better, less mannered as his partner Grossilliers. There's some action and a portage with natives that looks pretty compelling. That ends of course as soon as sac le bleau tabernac and maple syrup soaked Muni brings everything to a standstill while he "Frenchies up dee atmousehere". Nice to see a very young Gene Tierney turn up looking ravishing and sporting an English accent nearly as mannered as Muni's French one. Good for laughs , maybe.

After Paul Muni left Warner Brothers by mutual consent he was at liberty and took this one picture deal with 20th Century Fox. After playing such varied people as Louis Pasteur, Benito Juarez, and Emile Zola it was thought another biographical film was just the thing for him at Fox.

In Cecil B. DeMille's autobiography he mentions that at one time he was considering a Hudson's Bay type story as a project at Paramount. When he heard Darryl F. Zanuck was doing one at Fox he abandoned his film and instead did Union Pacific. It might have been interesting how DeMille would have done the story of the founding of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company.

Muni as he usually did played the role of Pierre-Espirit Radisson with gusto and bravado and he was probably a whole lot like Radisson really was in life. He's a curious figure in Canadian history, he was certainly the ideal that the French Habitants have as the men who pioneered and settled Canada. But he was also a rogue who dealt back and forth with the English and French as it suited him.

In this film he and partner Laird Cregar have been cheated out of their furs by the governor of New France, Montague Love. Not taking this lying down, Muni, Cregar, and their new partner Englishman John Sutton who has been exiled to the New World by the king, go back to the old country with a proposition about a vast new colony based at the end of Hudson's Bay. After all it was an Englishman named Henry Hudson who discovered the bay and was left to die there by mutineers.

Vincent Price who is Charles II is interested if he's brought proof of the riches. Sutton reunites with Gene Tierney and she persuades him to bring her brother along who is played by Morton Lowry and is a representative example of a Restoration fop. That causes trouble all around.

A lot of the criticism that Paul Muni is subjected to today is that he does ham it up on occasion. He certainly does so here, but if he didn't we'd have been left with one ponderous and dull film. Certainly if DeMille instead of Irving Pichel directed Hudson's Bay it would have moved as all DeMille films did. Whatever life Hudson's Bay has is what Muni breathed into it. I should also add that he and sidekick Laird Cregar are a delightful pair of rogues.

Hudson's Bay is a must for Paul Muni fans, I'm not sure how others will take to Hudson's Bay.

HUDSON'S BAY is a costume adventure of the era that tells of the founding of the famous trading post. You get the impression that everything is simplified here and what in actuality involved hundreds if not thousands of different people is condensed down into a dozen or so. I found Paul Muni's protagonist slightly irritating if I'm honest, as he has a certain campness that sits at odds with his supposed prowess. The best thing about this production for me was the opportunity to see some big genre names popping up in supporting roles; for example, it's a hoot to see Nigel Bruce and Vincent Price interacting in one scene.

Directed with his usual bland proficiency by Irving Pichel, the fact that 'Hudson's Bay' was named after the setting rather than Paul Muni's character showed he had come down in the world after the period when it was written into his contract that the name of his character was automatically part of the titles of the films in which he starred.

In 'Hudson's Bay', sporting a scruffy beard and a hilariously phoney French accent, he's dwarfed both in size and presence by new boy Laird Cregar. 'Hudson's Bay' marks the only occasion where he shared the screen with Vincent Price as the Merry Monarch, while the presence of Vanessa Field as Nell Gwynn gives him ample cause to be merry.

Frontier picture mostly set in Canada but the film's English scenes feature Vincent Price as King Charles II with his paramour, Nell Gwynn. Gene Tierney is second billed but has little to do apart from be beautiful and act as love interest to John Sutton. Star Paul Muni alongside Laird Cregar are two roguish French/Canadian fur trappers. Nigel Bruce is billed 7th as Prince Rupert but does not enter the film until it is almost halfway through and though he is decent enough, the serious nature of his role doesn't allow him to shine.