North West Mounted Police (1940)

North West Mounted Police is a 1940 Cecil B. DeMille western, although whether it’s really a western can be debated.

The setting is Canada, in 1885. For a couple of centuries the Métis have lived in the Canadian Northwest and they’ve been more or less left alone to live their lives as they choose. The Métis are a mixture of European and Indian. They’re trappers and they’re not interested in the benefits of civilisation. Until the late 19th century they were scarcely aware of being part of Canada. Suddenly they’ve become very much aware of it, and they want no part of being Canadian. They rebelled in 1869 and they’re ready to rebel again.

Keeping order in this territory is the job of a detachment of Canada’s North West Mounted Police, about fifty men.

Inspector Cabot would like to avoid trouble. He doesn’t have enough men to put down a full-scale rebellion. The real worry is that the local tribes, the Cree and the Blackfoot, may join the rebellion.

There are romantic dramas going on in the isolated fort as well. Sergeant Brett (Preston Foster) wants to marry Anglican Mission nurse April Logan (Madeleine Carroll). She’s not sure if she wants to marry him. April’s brother Constable Ronnie Logan (Robert Preston) is in love with a beautiful Métis girl, Louvette Corbeau (Paulette Goddard).

These romantic dramas will become significant when Dusty Rivers (Gary Copper) suddenly arrives on the scene. Dusty is a Texas Ranger. He’s a long way from Texas but he’s on the trail of man wanted for murder in Texas, a man named Jacques Corbeau (George Bancroft). That man is Louvette’s brother. And Dusty takes quite a shine to April Logan. She finds the lanky Texas Ranger pretty attractive. Sergeant Brett is not happy. Not happy at all.

To make things really explosive, the rebels have managed to get hold of a Gatling Gun. Fifty North West Mounted Police troopers won’t have much chance against that.

Sergeant Brett sets off on a solo mission to try to persuade the local Cree chief to remain loyal to the Canadian Government. Dusty Rivers sets off to find Jacques Corbeau. Since he can’t make an arrest on Canadian territory he is accompanied by a North West Mounted Police guide, a Scotsman named McDuff (Lynne Overman).

The already complicated plot gets more complicated. There’s treachery, there’s cowardice, there’s thwarted love, there’s jealousy. The rebels set an elaborate trap for the North West Mounted Police.

And there’s spectacle. This is a DeMille movie so it’s not a case of spectacle at the expense of content. The spectacle is the content.

This was DeMille’s first movie in Technicolor.

DeMille has never received much appreciation in his own country. The French regard him as a major auteur which baffles some American critics. DeMille seemed to have no interest in the currently fashionable approaches to movie-making. He had his own approach and if people thought it was old-fashioned he didn’t care. He figured the public would like the movies he made, and they did. North West Mounted Police did extremely well at the box office. DeMille wasn’t interested in naturalism or realism. He liked melodrama. He didn’t care if his movies seemed artificial, as long as they looked good.

In many ways this movie has more in common with movies about British colonial wars, movies like Gunga Din and King of the Khyber Rifles, than with westerns. It’s not really a western at all. This is a grand adventure movie.

Gary Cooper is good. Most of the players are good, with Paulette Godard chewing the scenery in fine style.

The ending is rather unexpected and it works.

Umbrella Entertainment in Australia have released this movie in their inexpensive but excellent Six Shooter Classics series.

Like most of DeMille’s movies this one is misunderstood. DeMille didn’t make movies the way modern critics and reviewers think movies should be made. Personally I like DeMille’s way of making movies. Recommended.