Hudson's Bay

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.

To make up for his lack of a French accent in The Life of Emile Zola, and to round out his repertoire of accents, Paul Muni put on a consistent and hilarious French accent in Hudson's Bay. He plays a fur trapper in Canada, and along with his Daniel Boone-like costume and scruffy beard-which wasn't in fashion in 1941 or the 1600s-Paul looks and sounds the part, making this movie all the more delightful.

While the beginning is a little boring, once you get into the heart of the film, it's very entertaining. Paul and Laird Cregar are friends and partners in their fur-trading business. Paul has dreams of opening a trading post, and when he crosses paths with an English nobleman, John Sutton, he devises a plan to turn all situations to his advantage. With charm, humor, and intelligence, Paul makes his way through Indian territory, the royal court, and jail, all with the goal of his trade post in mind. It's very cute how he worms his way through the movie, always with a smile so no one can really get mad at him.

If you're interested in seeing a young Gene Tierney, you can find her in one of her first movies, as John's beautiful love interest. Vincent Price plays King Charles II, and it's always nice to see him before he got type-casted as the creepy villain. It's Paul who steals the show, though, so get ready to love him even more than you already do.

During his career, Paul Muni was a solid and well respected actor. After all, he won the Oscar for Best Actor and was nominated for an Oscar five other times! This is a most impressive record considering he only made a few films...and he was nominated more than 25% of the time he appeared in a movie!

I mention this because I was incredibly suprised by his performance in the movie "Hudson's Bay". He was terrible playing a French fur trapper. Why? Because the performance was so broad and dopey...almost like seeing Huntz Hall playing a Frenchman! According to this performance, French guys roll their eyes or open them wide as saucers and make goofy faces and he is about as subtle as a nudist showing up at a Baptist barbecue!

In this highly fictionalized account of 17th century Canada, fur trappers Pierre and Gooseberry (Muni and Laird Cregar) partner up with a Brit, Lord Crewe (John Sutton) and they plan on making a killing trapping and selling furs. The local native tribes are very willing to work with them because Pierre and Gooseberry respect these people and deal with them fairly. But what is NOT fair is the new governor of French Canada is a crook who tries to steal their furs...especially the prized beaver pelts. The governor claims it's for 'taxes and various fines'...but he's clearly a crook.

The trio manage to escape and son Lord Crewe introduces them to the British king, Charles II (Vincent Price). He turns out to be a bit of an imperious butthead--which is actually pretty historically accurate. He was an inept king in many ways. And, the various folks they meet as they try to start a trading company are greedy and plan on cheating the tribes...to which Pierre (Muni) is appalled! So what's next for our eager beaver-loving heroes?

When it comes to historical accuracy, this film really has nothing to do with the British settling Canada. And, I can find no record of French governors in Canada abusing their power like the guy in this one. So, it's best to assume the film is just a story...not a history lesson. And, as such it is watchable and is worth seeing...at least as a time-passer.

One thing that is very true in the film is the value of beaver pelts. Beaver pelts and beaver hats were the rage and a person could get very rich trapping them...which led to over-hunting.

Fox continued their run of pioneering biopics (that is to say, depicting the life stories of notable historical figures as opposed to the films themselves being particularly groundbreaking!) by recruiting the actor who had been most renowned for this type of fare, i.e. Paul Muni, albeit at another studio (Warners). In fact, Fox had earlier made LLOYD'S OF London (1936), SUEZ (1938), STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE (1939) and THE STORY OF Alexander GRAHAM BELL (1939) in this vein, whereas Muni had starred in THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1936), THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937) and JUAREZ (1939). Though HUDSON'S BAY more or less maintained the standard of both parallel cycles, it proved to be Muni's last such vehicle.

Anyway, this revolves around French fur-trapper Pierre Esprit Radisson's opening-up of Canada (at the time mostly populated by Red Indians and referred to as "New France") to do business with Europe and his dream of giving an identity to the still-untamed country. Muni (who actually looks quite a bit like director Pichel, himself an imposing character actor with a somewhat sinister countenance and a distinctive deep voice to match!) was once considered the greatest thespian of his generation, but his hammy acting style – rendered even more ludicrous by a variety of 'funny' accents – has dated badly in hindsight. Mind you, he is still a compelling screen presence and, in this case, he comes across as something of a man of action (whereas he had usually been restricted to presiding over laboratory flasks, books – of both literature and law – and the political arena in defence of the oppressed)!

Typically, the production values and supporting cast are impressive: the latter includes Laird Cregar as Muni's equally uncouth sidekick; Gene Tierney (wasted in a smallish part – despite being second-billed – as the obligatory romantic interest of John Sutton, yet another of the protagonist's companions!); Vincent Price as the British King Charles II (to whom Radisson turns – thanks to banished subject Sutton's influence – when his request of an official Canadian expedition to the rightful French ruler falls on deaf ears and, having ventured forth solo, his prized pelts were subsequently appropriated by the State and himself thrown into prison!); and Nigel Bruce as an aristocrat (who, persuaded as to the benefits that could be reaped by England from the establishment of a Hudson Bay trading-post, vouches for Muni with His Majesty).

Radisson emerges here a man who is able to elicit confidence from the savage people he deals with but, more importantly, he respects them in return – even making it a point to get to know them (so that he can then react accordingly to their unpredictable nature). For one thing, he notices the Redskins cannot withstand alcohol, and that its intake yields unbridled violence – when such an episode occurs, he does the right thing and condemns the man responsible to death by firing squad (even if, being Tierney's layabout brother, he is the prospective in-law of Muni's own pal Sutton!). This form of instant justice is not appreciated by Price (by the way, the King's infamous mistress Nell Gwynn, also puts in an appearance here: for the record, I recently acquired but have yet to watch her own 1934 biopic with Anna Neagle and Cedric Hardwicke as her sovereign lover) on their return, but eventually both he and Tierney resign themselves to the fact that Radisson acted in the best interest of all concerned.

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.