Die scharlachroten Reiter

The master of spectacle doesn't let us down in that regard with his first movie shot in Technicolor.The action sequences are as exciting as in other De Mille spectacles but the hammy acting,the ridiculous dialog and slow pacing makes this a below par movie for De Mille. Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll look embarrassed throughout speaking those silly lines.Preston Foster as the third party of the love triangle has one of his more substantial parts in his career.But it is fun to watch Paulette Goddard's hilarious overacting.As her villainous father George Bancroft isn't far behind in that department.The best acting are provided by the two veterans Akim Tamiroff and Lynne Overman who provide some comic relief.The movie is beautiful to look at in bright colors and passes the afternoon quite painlessly.

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.

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.

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.

1940's "North West Mounted Police" may have been Paramount's biggest box office success that year, but considering it as the first color film for director Cecil B. De Mille it must rank as one of his few failures. The Duck Lake massacre of 1885 led by Louis Riel (Francis McDonald) provides a solid backdrop for an abundance of poorly sketched characters unable to overcome the sluggish pace. The chief villain is Jacques Corbeau (George Bancroft), whose wildcat half breed daughter (Paulette Goddard) is in love with Mountie Ronnie Logan (Robert Preston). Gary Cooper toplines as the Texas Ranger sent north to bring Corbeau to justice, sparring with dedicated Sergeant Jim Brett (Preston Foster) over the lovely April Logan (Madeleine Carroll), sister of Ronnie. This makes it sound like a real snoozefest, and while it's not quite that bad it certainly isn't very captivating. Supporting players like George E. Stone are on and off in a flash, while poor Lon Chaney (previously seen in a silent role in De Mille's "Union Pacific") doesn't fare much better as Shorty, one of the trappers involved with Riel, who at least has a chance to exult in becoming a father. We last see him with his pretty young wife, properly scolding him before he meekly replies, "yes mama."