Jeff Arnold’s West

The blog of a Western fan, for other Western fans

Saskatchewan (Universal, 1954)

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Ladd post-Paramount
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Saskatchewan is a fun movie with a bit of zip. The screenplay (Gil Doud) is a bit dull but thanks to director Raoul Walsh this is a lively  Western – if you think films about red-coated Mounties north of the border qualify as Westerns. It was made two years after Tyrone Power had joined the RCMP in Fox’s so-so Pony Soldier. 
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It is 1877, in Saskatchewan. Alan Ladd (Whispering Smith in red) has been brought up by the Cree and become a policeman. He does everything to prevent the Cree allying with post-Little Big Horn Sioux, who have come north into Her Majesty’s domains, wanting to wipe out as many redcoats as they had bluecoats. Ladd has his own Tonto in the shape of Jay Silverheels, his blood brother, but Jay is a bit cross at being disarmed by a mule-headed and insensitive British RCMP officer (Robert Benton) and so he sides with Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
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In a Bountyesque episode, Ladd mutinies against Benton and leads the party bravely to safety. In the group is Shelley Winters, a large saloon gal, who is distinctly out of place. She is accompanied by an Earpish US marshal (in fact it’s Hugh O’Brian so no wonder he looks Earpish) who is taking Shelley back to Montana to stand trial for murder, though really he is in love with her. Of course Canadian Mounties were OK to Hollywood if an American lawman came north of the border to arrest someone. That had been proved by Gary Cooper in North West Mounted Police in 1940. Shelley always had substantial Browningesque curves and was no sylph but in this movie she wasn’t yet actually, er, imposing. However, large or small, she was never terribly good in Westerns.
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The party is made more colorful by the addition of a buckskin-clad French scout, Batouche (J Carrol Naish), who is amusing. There’s also a cheery ‘Irishman’ whose accent sounds suspiciously Chicago-Irish, in the shape of Richard Long.

 

The Banff scenery is truly spectacular, photographed dramatically in Technicolor by John Seitz. It could have been Switzerland. It’s actually Bow Lake and Peyto Lake in the Banff National Park, and quite stunningly beautiful. The music (Henry Mancini et al) is overwrought but quite suitable and Walsh-ish.
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There is loads of action as the Sioux attack a lot. There’s a high-speed canoe chase, obviously the prototype for Bullitt or The French Connection (not). It’s really a straightforward cavalry Western that just happens to be set in Canada and the soldiers have red uniforms instead of blue. Ladd isn’t very good (he never was as a Western action man) and the part cried out for Errol Flynn but I suppose the female fans were happy either way.
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Of course lerve blooms once the jealous Marshal O’Brian is disposed of. The Mountie always gets his person, after all.

 

 

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6 Responses

  1. The two Alan Ladd movies could not be watched on Westerns On The Web. Must be some publicity crap, not allowing anyone access. Sure it could be to protect sales at Amazon.com.
    No problem with buying the 2 movies, but from where.
    Tony Ong

  2. Hi Jeff. Just thought I'd point out this movie is notorious for being low point for classic Hollywood butchering Canadian geography and history, and is quite funny for Canadian viewers. The province of Saskatchewan is some of the flatest terrain the world, Hollywood has in effect moved the Rocky Mountains east from Colorado (Alberta) into Kansas (Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan). The Mounted Police fought zero gun battles with the Sioux, in the fact the Sioux foray into Canada after Custer's Last Stand was quite peaceful, no shooting of anyone let alone a deadly battle. The Mounties sneaking up on the Indians in their Red Serge uniforms is great, as are the jungle calls the Indian scouts make at night. Awesome film!

    1. Yes, very amusing portrayal of 'history'. Of course Hollywood Westerns were notorious for playing fast and loose with the facts. Up to a point I don't mind that. We don't watch Westerns for a history lesson. I only object when they preface the movies with "this is how it really happened"-type statements!
      Jeff

  3. Western Canada is definitely a western (movies) territory but unfortunately there is a lack of imagination and maybe knowledge among the screenwriters (and the public). Split between Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Cypress Hills Massacre, Fort Walsh, Wood Mountain Park, are some of the historic sites connected to the epic beginnings of the NorthWest Mounted Police , the western ancestor of the current Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is a shame that the story of James Morrow Walsh has never been brought to the big screen yet. He became friend with Sitting Bull who had crossed the border following Little Big Horn. The Whoop-Up Trail linking Fort Benton in Montana to Fort Whoop-Up in current Lethbridge (Alberta) used by the whisky smugglers, the battles between the Blackfoot, Piegan and Cree nations, the NWMP Barracks in Fort Mc Leod, the Metis rebellion led by Louis Riel ending tragically in Batoche (Saskatchewan), even the Lewis and Clark encounter with the Blackfeet, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the gold rushes in British Columbia Cariboos and of course in Yukon, the Fraser Canyon War etc. there are many (true) stories that are typically “western”, not only the gorgeous landscapes (used in american movies for budget reasons) which potentially could become fictions.
    Canada deserves much better as far western is concerned than Cecil B. De Mille 1940 North West Mounted Police (in spite of Coop) or even this colourful Saskatchewan, to me a wonderful chilhood souvenir when I saw it on TV.

    1. Hollyood did sometimes make use of these ‘Western’ locations, as in SASKATCHEWAN, though was equally capable of filming ‘Canada’ in Arizona! Often they weren’t really Canadian stories so much as Hollywood Westerns set in Canada. See https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2019/02/the-american-western-north-of-border_19/
      It sounds to me as if you ought to write a screenplay about Walsh and pitch it to Netflix!
      DeMille’s NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE is indeed pretty dire, despite Coop (see https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2015/10/north-west-mounted-police-paramount-1940/) though not as bad as SUSANNAH OF THE MOUNTIES despite Randy! (https://jeffarnoldswest.com/2013/11/susannah-of-mounties-fox-1939/)

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