Captivating movie !

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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."

You don't expect subtlety or underacting in a movie made by Cecil B. DeMille, and you don't get it here. There are several stories blended together around the idea of Cooper, a Texas Ranger, come to the Canadian north woods to capture a miscreant murderer, the half breed Corbeau.This Corbeau is a nasty guy. He and the other half breeds are trying to stir up the Blackfeet and the Cree against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, intending to declare independence and kill everybody who doesn't like their new country. Cooper is swept up in the intrigues. Robert Preston is a Mountie who falls for the devoted but treacherous half breed woman, Louvette, played by Paulette Goddard in the go-anywhere accent she used when she played foreign spitfires. She was such an attractive and sexy young woman, it's a shame she didn't get better parts.There is a dull romantic triangle involving Sergeant Preston Foster and another woman he worships, Madeleine Carroll, and there are several shoot outs between half breeds and the RCMP. The half breeds have got their hands on a Gatling gun, which gives them a kind of edge. I didn't like the fact that there were two actors in supporting roles whose names I always mix up -- Robert Preston and Preston Foster. But I was on the side of the Northwest Mounted Police at every moment. One scene -- an aborted patrol -- shows us some skilled extras in formation that make John Ford's cavalrymen look like amateurs. I also was enthralled by the titles -- Inspector, Constable, Chief of Inspectors, Chief of Constables, Constable Inspector-in-Chief, and Queen of England.Gary Cooper is young and handsome and looks like he belongs on a horse. He may have had the longest limbs of any major Hollywood actor. And he adopts the rural speech and hick-like characteristics he used in "Sergeant York." "I was just a-passin' this way." "A feller has to take what he's a-got a-comin' to him." "I ain't a-got a-nothing' hyeah but maters, braid, and a-hoppin' john." (Well -- not that.) Sure, it's dumb. All the usual cinematic conventions are followed. There's no real mistaking the evil doers because they're all ugly or comic or both. The Francis Ford role is taken by Lynne Overman as Todd McDuff, a supposed Scotsman who lays it on a little thick. But he's one of the more likable sidekicks in the genre, so let McDuff lay on.It IS colorful, especially considering that that is no outdoor scene in it. It's all shot on a sound stage. Still, you have never seen so many crimson tunics. I think by this time they had stopped using dried scaled insects to produce the color.

NWMP has just had a rare outing on British TV and it's a Gary Cooper film I hadn't seen before. It wasn't bad by 1940s' standards for a Western. The scenic shots at the beginning were a bit garish but then the colour seemed to settle down. It's worth a look for:1. Gary Cooper, who's never looked better facially; 2. Paulette Goddard, who looked fantastic; 3. the unusual historical setting; 4. early, albeit minor, appearances of Robert Ryan and Rod Cameron.The police head-gear apart, some effort had been made to make the uniforms and civilian clothes look authentic.The tragi-comic "duel" that the Scotsman involved himself did jar a little.I'm not perceptive enough to read much "sub-text" in films, but I did wonder about the date of issue (1940) and the gallant, laid-back US coming to the aid of the stuffy but devoted-to-duty Brits.Not for the first time, I had a slight difficulty in distinguishing at first between the two Prestons on the small screen.I would be happy to watch NWMP again, recording it if necessary, if it's screened again in a year or so.

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.