One of my all time favorites.

Lack of good storyline.

Excellent but underrated film

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is northern as delightfulness, a mellowed genre by '45 (but by the year this movie has been made, its genre had another 10 yrs of output ahead of it), with at least 15 yrs of sustained output; the twin of the western had an even more beautiful literary pedigree (which is, Curwood instead of Grey), and 'Northwest Trail' is a celebration of the beauties of the genre: the refreshing poetry, the intense charm of the landscape (I approached this genre on choice, looking for these values), plus a standout cast: Steele as a trooper, Madge Bellamy as a severely beaten wife, Hatton as a bartender, the cast being in itself quite polychrome, and a good score. Here, Steele's ease shows you he was a good actor, no mean accomplishment, he was good when he had a script; his role here came only 5 yrs after 'Billy the Kid in Texas', but much had changed, so that 'Northwest Trail', a title to epitomize a whole genre, has also a dramatic plot, not only an action plot, which in itself was quite a step ahead. The northern movies had bucolic poetry, refreshing landscapes, another take on the American nature. Here, the script has self-referential and parody lines, but it's not a feeling of twilight, but the mellowness of a certain storytelling. Story-wise, a trooper steps into a nest of evildoers, his own life soon jeopardized, and the movie is a mystery tale: the chance for Steele to get a new life on screen as an action actor, doing a very good physical role.I have seen the movie from 10 PM on, with a break after 20'.

This Bob Steele film is a bit unusual because it's filmed in color (using the Cinecolor system)--and most B-westerns were made in glorious black & white. What else is interesting is that the film in many ways is NOT a western--and the picture is a slight departure from the films Steele usually starred in during his career. The film is set in Canada and Steele plays a Mountie. However despite the change in locale and him not being a cowboy, the film is very much like a western. He and the rest of the folks ride horses, shoot guns and like a typical western, there is a gang of baddies. When the film begins, Steele comes upon an annoying lady who is having car trouble. Despite his helping her and being very polite, this woman is grouchy and unappreciative. Later, not surprisingly, Steele is given an assignment to escort a woman into the wilderness...and the woman is the annoying lady. What he doesn't know and she didn't tell anyone is that she has $20,000 on her--and it's the payroll for her uncle's business. So, when the money is stolen, you can't exactly blame Bob. However, being a hero, he investigates and the trail takes him to the uncle's town--and soon it's obvious that something else is afoot. The local Mountie is oblivious or simply doesn't care about this or other crimes and orders Bob back to headquarters. However, with folks shooting at him right and left, he decides to disobey orders and investigate further. What's really going on here?The change of pace for Steele is welcome here. However, what is not welcome is that occasionally the plot seems as if pieces were cut out of it--with Steele making some astounding leaps in logic when it comes to figuring out who is behind all this nonsense and why. Additionally, the direction was occasionally sloppy--with a scene or two which should have been re-shot but weren't (such as when the lady was talking over Steele because she missed her cue). Not great but watchable.

Northwest Trail features a lot of positives, actually: Bob Steele and Joan Woodbury, a decent plot, a fast pace...and, especially, some color photography that was probably quite gorgeous in 1945 when the print was fresh. Unfortunately, the colors have long-since faded, at least on the version I saw. But it had to be something of an investment for an independent B-movie company to produce anything in color at that time. And the "Canadian" scenery really did add to my enjoyment of an otherwise solid story.Fun to see John Litel as a Mountie whose actions must be described as "hm, suspicious." And the always-snarling Charles Middleton has a few good moments as a French-Canadian backwoods bad guy named "Pierre." (His name is how I know he's French.) Plenty of action here. And the interaction between Joan Woodbury and Bob Steele is satisfying--as one might expect, he's steady as a rock throughout the picture, while she's annoying as can be in their initial encounter but they gradually grow on each other....A lot to like in a mere hour.

It's not exactly Nelson Eddy and Jeannette McDonald from an earlier era, but this is Bob Steele and Joan Woodbury offering their take on a Mountie who gets his man - as well as his girl! This is B-movie stuff, although of pretty good quality. It has beautiful scenery and a decent enough mystery, as Steele, playing Trooper O'Brien (a guy who comes across as a dedicated but not perhaps the best Mountie around), has to escort Woodbury (who played Kate) through the British Columbia wilderness to the settlement where her American uncle is engaged in mining. Unfortunately, she gets robbed of $20000 she was carrying to her uncle (unknown to O'Brien) and the Trooper gets to play detective as he seeks to solve the mystery.This really isn't bad. It's unpredictable, and I didn't see the end coming. The B-movie veteran Steele was earnest in the role but perhaps a bit stiff at times; he was outshone by Woodbury, who was pretty good as Kate. In general, the performances were OK, but not the greatest - which is why this is a B-movie, after all. After an unpredictable resolution to the mystery, the actual ending of the movie was a bit too predictable. It would have been more jarring had Kate been part of the plot rather than simply ending up as O'Brien's love interest. Still, it's a short and relatively interesting movie that overcomes the flaws in some of the performances.