Sur la piste glacée

... but this is still a delightful mess for anyone who loves the early talkies.

Mountie Sgt. Conniston (Charles Bickford) and his guide Pat O'Toole head into rugged terrain in the dead of winter to catch an accused murderer. When they find the guy, they are surprised that he looks just like Conniston. So to say Charles Bickford is the whole show here would not be an exaggeration. On the way back, accused murderer John Keith has a chance to head for freedom and leave O'Toole and Conniston in the snow to die, but he has a change of heart and rescues them. On the way back to civilization Conniston dies of a frozen lung, and O'Toole believes Keith's story of being innocent of the murder of which he's accused. They both plan to have Keith dress up like Conniston so that he can make it across the border into the United States.

But then life is what happens when you make plans. Keith is spotted by some other mounties and has to go to headquarters with the rest of them or else it would look like desertion. While there he meets and befriends O'Toole's young son and falls in love with Conniston's best girl, Miriam. Miriam was going to break it off with Conniston because of his stiff ways, but then she falls in love with John Keith impersonating Conniston. But circumstances conspire to keep Miriam and Keith apart - Mainly that the actual Conniston turns out to have had a deep dark secret, and everybody thinks that Keith is Conniston. Complications ensue.

The acting in this early talking film is excellent, mainly because of the considerable talent of Charles Bickford. Director Michael Curtiz convinced the Warner Brothers to borrow him specifically for this dual role. There are some art design problems. For example, lots of the scenery looks painted rather than being actual trees. It looks very amateurish, like a high school play. And you also just have the limitations of cinematography in the early sound era, such as when Keith as Conniston runs into the actual Mounties. A close-up wouldn't convey what is going on, and the long shot, which is used, shows all of the mounties but doesn't have clear conversation or show Keith's facial expression at being cornered. What they needed was a medium shot that could cut to Keith and then to the Mounties who spot him, which can't be done outdoors at this point. Also, there are some gaffes, such as Zasu Pitts and Evelyn Knapp dressing for a game of tennis when it is January in Canada! I guess you can take the girls out of LA but you can't take LA out of the girls!

You can enjoy Charles Bickford in a rare (dual) leading role and watch Michael Curtiz learning to master talkies in this rugged melodrama, an improbability about a Mountie who gets his man and lives, though not for long, to regret it. Unusual for this period, it has refreshingly ambiguous morality -- the Mountie, outwardly such a mensch, turns out to have an interesting secret, and the bad guy turns out to be not bad at all. Add to that an appealing supporting cast, with vivacious, pretty Evalyn Knapp (she looks a little like Joan Blondell around the same time) and the excellent Junior Coughlan, a comparatively subtle kid actor who doesn't overdo cute, like Freddie Bartholomew, or grate the ears, like Jackie Cooper. Some of the art direction is forcedly unreal, almost Expressionist, and the ending's abrupt and unconvincing. But the snowy exteriors are vivid and believable, and Bickford's good enough to leave you wondering why he didn't attain leading-man status for a longer period.

Michael Curtiz directs Charles Bickford in a story of rugged adventure in the Frozen North piney woods - sounds great.

Well, for the first ten minutes, with mountie Bickford getting his man, unshaven fugitive Bickford, and the dialogue in Eskimo (I kid you not) this one does intrigue, even if Ben Carré's painted on canvas cabin walls aren't going to fool anyone. The effects work with the doubled-up character is really ingenious and the confrontation has a harshness that we're not used to.

Unfortunately, as with so many early sound films, all the good stuff is in the opening and then the movie gets on with what people have paid good money to watch - actors talking.

The leads aren't at all bad but the dumb plot lets them down.I wonder who thought it was worth another go round in 1940?