Fronteiras do Norte

The two biggest names who were not yet big names are far down the cast list of Northern Frontier. This is an unpretentious low budget quickie shot for a Poverty Row outfit called Ambassador Pictures. I will say that the low budget aspects of it are somewhat masked by the location shooting at Big Bear Lake to use as the Canadian Northern Frontier.

The film stars Kermit Maynard and he gets involved in a racket that involves both selling and smuggling animal skins and using counterfeit money as well. When another Mountie stumbles on to the racket, Maynard's brought in.

Turns out Kermit's got a big stake in this one. His girl friend is Eleanor Hunt and her dad is being forced to work for the convicts. In fact the big boss of the outfit, perennial B western villain LeRoy Mason is really planning to double cross everybody in a very special way.

Walter Brennan has a small role as a stuttering cook who works with Mason who abuses him and doesn't have patience for him even when Brennan catches on that Maynard is a Mountie. Brennan had been in a lot of films mostly westerns for years. The same year Northern Frontier was out, Brennan got his first real critical notices in Samuel Goldwyn's Barbary Coast.

When we first meet Maynard before he's given his assignment, he's giving riding lessons to some newly minted Mounties. One of them is Tyrone Power who you will have some trouble recognizing. That's his credit listing in the cast. He'd be off to the newly formed 20th Century Fox studio for fame and fortune right after this film.

Northern Frontier is an unpretentious B Northwestern with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police getting their men as always. And this was a year before Nelson Eddy sang a note in a Mountie uniform.