Legião de Heróis

You first have to understand that DeMille has taken considerable poetic licence, while using the story of the return of Louis Riel to Canada, and the subsequent Duck Lake massacre of a large unit of Mounties. Even the pronunciation by DeMille of the word "Metis" at the introduction to the movie is quite incorrect.

Fun to watch the fictional introduction of Gary Cooper as a Texas marshal travelling into Canada in pursuit of a Metis criminal.

Some good aspects of the film include the historical accuracy of the uniforms at that time... no wide brimmed hats... and the correctness of the name of the Mounties at that time. The only item of historical inaccuracy is the fur hats that DeMille has the Mounties wear. During the warmer weather they wore either a pill box hat or a white helmet. They did wear fur hats during the winter with their Buffalo hide coats, but DeMille did not like the design of any of the head wear that was part of the actual uniform, so he had this design made for the picture.

The two key bad guys are historical fact, although whether they acted as they are shown in the movie is another question. Whether there was a gatling gun at the Duck Lake massacre is another question the historians will have to answer.

Generally, a good romp... a great movie to sit back and watch with popcorn and a soft drink.

One of several idiosyncratic inclusions in that silly book, 'The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time', DeMille's first film in full Technicolor is actually good fun; and adroitly exploits his new toy by filling the screen with Mounties' red uniforms (one of them worn by a fleetingly glimpsed young Robert Ryan).

Starring Gary Cooper as the delightfully named Dusty Rivers, the ladies comprise a rare appearance in colour by the blonde Madeleine Carroll (who describes Coop as "an angel in leather"), visually contrasted with dusky half-Indian wildcat Paulette Goddard (of whom Robert Preston snarls "If your neck wasn't so lovely I'd break it!!).

As usual in a late DeMille all the spectacular outdoor scenes are left in the hands of second-unit director Arthur Rossen; while veteran editor Anne Bauchen's ability to lick this all into coherent shape was acknowledged by the Academy with an Oscar.

"Oh Dusty, you're an angel in leather!" "I love you so terrible bad I feel good!" "You're the sweetest poison that ever got into a man's blood!"

Campy and implausible enough to be written up in "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time", yet too slow to be as amusing as "The Conqueror". Set in 19th century Quebec, the characters mill around a wilderness fort, chase each other and a gattling gun, lust after each other, and spout ridiculous dialogue. It takes forever and drags a lot, but it looks nice for something shot on a soundstage, and there are some decent actors like Gary Cooper and Madeline Carroll in it, even if they look kind of embarrassed.

What keeps this from being other boring costume melodramas like "Unconquered" is the usually wooden Paulette Goddard as a half-breed temptress. (You just know you're in for something bad when you see those words) We're talking high camp, over-the-top ludicrous, with her silly accent and sillier makeup, and supreme overconfidence in her ability to handle a role like this. It's worth tuning it to see her sashay around in her leather-and-feather costumes, chewing the scenery while doing stuff like public spankings and tormenting a bound Robert Preston.

When Cecil B. DeMille started filming Northwest Mounted Police, Joel McCrea was Texas Ranger Dusty Rivers (a cowboy name if there ever was one), but after a few scenes McCrea dropped out and Gary Cooper got to do his second of four DeMille features.

It was both DeMille and Cooper's first film in technicolor and when DeMille went in for technicolor we mean bright hues of every part of the rainbow. But back then color itself was a novelty so people liked seeing it. Northwest Mounted Police also won an Oscar for best editing. Taking home the prize was Anne Bauchens who edited every single DeMille film from back into the middle silent era. DeMille had it written into his contract at Paramount that he would not do a film unless Ms. Bauchens was available to be editor. He had many of the same folks on his various films, but only Ms. Bauchens rated that kind of treatment.

Michael Medved has Northwest Mounted Police listed among the fifty worst films of all time. It's not great, but it ain't as bad as all that. The Victorian DeMille type dialog is the main reason, but it is no more present here than in any of his other sound films.

Northwest Mounted Police takes place in the mid 1880s and concerns the famous 2nd Louis Riel Rebellion and the Duck Lake massacre of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in that conflict. Grafted on to that is the story of a Texas Ranger played by Gary Cooper who comes up to Canada with a warrant for one of Riel's confederates who killed a man in his state.

Of course Cooper gets himself mixed up in the politics of the area and also considerably mixed up with Maddeleine Carroll, much to the displeasure of her sweetheart Preston Foster, as stalwart a Mountie as you'll ever find this side of Nelson Eddy. That's a standard DeMille plot device, two men in heat over the heroine.

In some considerable heat himself is Robert Preston who is Carroll's brother also a Mountie. He's got it bad for Paulette Goddard a Meti who's got it real bad for Preston. In fact her little scheme concerning Preston is what drives the action of the film in the second half.

DeMille was never an actor's director or a writer's director. But he knew how to fill the screen and keep the action going. That he does in Northwest Mounted Police.

this first demille color epic was a sensation in 1940, deep in the era of fitzpatrick traveltalks ("so as the sun sinks slowly behind the rugged rockies we bid a reluctant adieu to the friendly metis people of canada.") it surely has many fine moments. but the plot is somewhat convoluted and the hero keeps picking up different horses along the way. "the horse he rode in on" was 1500 miles from home (texas). we see a somewhat distorted map of canada at the opening. the pivotal town of batoche is situated too close to the US border, about where regina should be. regina isn't shown, despite continual reference to it throughout. demille isn't the best director for gary cooper, who was allowed to brandish his bizarre mannerisms in a duel to the finish with paulette goddard. the cool blonde madeleine carroll and stout fella preston foster were pleasant to see, but best acting was done by george bancroft as the heartless whiskey runner, jacques corbeau. best lines include one by montagu love as the mortally wounded inspector cabot: some fool at headquarters wants to change the uniform to green. stand up for the redcoats! it's a good color. and another colonialism from foster as sgt. brett to an indian chief: will big bear kneel to the queen and be chief of his people again? it was a valiant two hour fight, but the scenery won. bonus quote by lynne overman as scottish-indian todd macduff: do they have fast horses in texas, mr. rivers? i'm bettin' they can nae keep up wi' the men.