Northwest Passage
MGM 1940 / Dir. King Vidor
Blu-ray: Warner Archive Collection $21.99
MGM released no fewer than 50 feature films in the 1940 calendar year, and few of them are as big, sprawling, impressive and colorful as Northwest Passage, a film that has nothing to do with the search for the Northwest Passage; that part of the story was saved for a sequel that was never made.
Spencer Tracy is real-life guerilla fighter Robert Rogers, leaders of Rogers’ Rangers, a motley but well-trained group of mercenaries fighting on the side of the British in the French and Indian War. Their mission: dodge the French and unfriendly Indians and raid the Canadian village of Saint-François-du-Lac (St. Francis to us) to slaughter the renegade Abenakis Indians they find there, and when we say slaughter, we mean slaughter. Much of the tale is told through the eyes of Robert Young as Towne, a student and artist expelled from Harvard for his unflattering political cartoons, and who is joined by his pal Hunk, played by Walter Brennan as a semi-toothed drunk and ne’er-do-well who’s devoted to Towne.
Action, thrills, drama, and mischief abound as we follow the Rangers through dangerous territory that, although it abounds with lakes and rivers and woodlands, doesn’t seem to have much game or fish for some reason, so our boys in green are slowly starving to death, subsisting on a handful of dried corn a day. Once their mission is complete, with the French hot on their tails, they need to make it to Fort Wentworth to meet up with the British and, hopefully, find some snacks.
What a movie! Based on Richard Roberts’ best-selling 1936-37 historical novel (more than 700 pages, presented in two parts and serialized in – where else? – the Saturday Evening Post), MGM’s production team hauled Technicolor cameras into the Great Pacific Northwest for one of the most rugged, months-long shoot of the time, and the result is a motion picture never to be forgotten once seen, not least of all for the blood ‘n’ guts of the endeavor. Much of the more shocking violent sequences that are referred to are off screen, but they’re described in bloody detail and with such relish that after seeing the film, we look back and feel as though we actually witnessed the carnage. And for those who enjoy witnessing carnage, there’s plenty on display, believe you me. Yet despite the large-scale action sequences, the film retains a sense that it’s human beings and not massacre-fodder we’re watching; when one of the characters is seriously wounded, Rogers reminds him of his gal back home and forces him to look at a sketch of her to remember why it’s so important to fight for life. (Ruth Hussey, by the way, at her most beautiful is the lady in the sketch.)
Million-dollar Dialog:
“I'm not a man now, Sergeant. I'm a soldier in command of men. If you ever meet me when I'm just a man, you may have to use a little charity.”
Without fail, every Warner Archive Collection Technicolor restoration of classics of the era have lit up the screen in ways they hadn’t since their original release, and Northwest Passage is no exception; only The Adventures of Robin Hood tops it for sheer Technicolor excitement; the screen glows with color. Extras include a really interesting one-reel MGM Miniature promotion for the film (I wonder how many of these one-reelers MGM made; ah, for the days when we might’ve gotten a Warner Archive DVD release of three discs full of ‘em) and a Technicolor trailer of a reissue of the film, but sadly, no cartoon (well, the feature IS more than two hours long, although we ALWAYS expect a cartoon). We love this movie! Highest recommendation.
