It's history again according to the gospel of DeMille but it's exciting, lavish, and a great spectacle. The film is set in 1885, at the time of the Riel Rebellion in Canada, as Indians and halfbreeds unite under the leadership of McDonald, goaded by renegade Bancroft. Foster is a courageous
and by-the-book sergeant in the Mounties who is in love with Anglican nurse Carroll. Preston, Carroll's younger brother, is also a Mountie but he is hopelessly in love with Bancroft's half-breed sister, Goddard, a vixen who, though she loves Preston, is utterly loyal to her murderous father
Bancroft. Into this turbulent world rides Cooper, a Texas Ranger in search of Bancroft who is wanted on a murder charge in the Lone Star State. Inspector Love tells Cooper that Bancroft is also wanted by the Mounties for murder but that he wishes to cooperate with US authorities. Cooper moves into
the Mountie barracks and befriends the hearty policemen with the red coats. He also meets and is smitten by the lovely blonde Carroll, and this causes Preston some angst and no little jealousy when he sees his intended respond to the earthy Cooper. At one point, Cooper is describing his expansive
native state and Carroll states: "Texas must be heaven." Says Cooper: "It will be when you get there." (DeMille's epics were known for corny dialog but the audiences of the 1930s nevertheless enjoyed it.) When Bancroft and McDonald plan to ambush the 50 Mounties Love can muster against the
thousands of half-breeds and Indians, Bancroft displays a newly acquired Gatling gun (precursor to the machine gun). McDonald surveys the devastating fun and says ominously: "Blood will run like water." Replies the sadistic and callous Bancroft: "Blood? You won't notice it much. The Mounted Police
wear red coats." The love scenes between Preston and the wildcat Goddard (who always overacted in any DeMille film as a matter of policy) are downright embarrassing, even for the audiences of that day. Says Goddard in her thick accent to Preston: "I think I eat your heart out, maybe!" And then she
says: "My heart sings like a bird!" Preston is out-and-out mushy with lines like: "You're the sweetest poison that ever got into a man's blood! I" When she turns on him, Preston lashes out at Goddard with a stream of invective that only DeMille could create: "You sneaking she-wolf! You dirty
squaw! I'll kill you when I get loose." Before the Mounties are ambushed, Preston and another Mountie, Toomey, are sent to an outpost to keep watch and report back if they see the half-breeds approaching. But Preston deserts his post to see sexy Goddard and she ties him up so he will be safe from
her father's bloodthirsty half-breeds. Toomey is punctured with arrows and the Mountie fort is savagely attacked, with Cooper saving Carroll and taking her from the carnage in a canoe (much the same way he would later save Goddard in UNCONQUERED). Moreover, Cooper later performs some breakneck
riding to lasso the Gatling gun and drag it over a cliff so that it sinks into a lake and saves the rest of the Mountie force--a feat he attributes to Preston so that the youthful Mountie, by then dead, will be thought of as a hero, not a deserter--a Beau Geste he renders for the sake of the woman
he loves, Carroll. Foster, meanwhile, with survivors of the near-massacre, rides boldly into the camp of Indian chief Big Bear (Hampden) to confront the bully Bancroft. The renegade shouts to the Indians to kill the Mounties but Preston steps forward, flips the powerful Bancroft on his back, and,
in the same startling motion, handcuffs him so that he immediately loses face in front of his Indian allies. Foster then offers Hampden a medal from Queen Victoria and asks the chief if he is worthy of such an honor. Hampden kneels in obedience to British authority and says: "The Cree are brothers
to the brave!" (Hampden's makeup, like all of that applied to those playing Indians, including real Indians, was a dark mahogany but his eyes were bright blue and the studio had to spend more than $500 in fitting the character actor with an early-day set of contact lenses to change the color of
his eyes to brown.) Bancroft, as a gesture of good will, is turned over to Cooper to be taken back to Texas for trial. The slow-speaking Texan, however, only gets his man, not the girl. Carroll decides that Foster is the man for her and, though she is fond of Cooper, she loves the stoical Mountie.
This was DeMille's first Technicolor film and he made the most of it, presenting lavish and stunning color, although he was told by Paramount at the last minute that he could not shoot the film on location in Canada as he originally planned. (Throughout 1939, DeMille's associate producer, Bill
Pine, scouted locations in Canada, selecting sites in Regina, Banff, Calgary, Ottawa, and Lake Louise, along with getting Canadian approval for the shooting.) DeMille did his own research on the Riel Rebellion and then turned it over to a bevy of writers who provided a rather disjointed and
episodic script but DeMille was satisfied and felt he could "fill in the blanks" as he went along. The original working title for the film was THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED and this was changed to SCARLET RIDERS, but someone at Paramount stated that this might be interpreted as horseback riding
prostitutes so the final title, NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE came into being. Cooper was a natural in the film, playing his usual low-key character, which DeMille had liked since they had made THE PLAINSMAN in 1936. This was also the first Technicolor film for Cooper, although he had appeared in a
color sequence in an entertainment documentary, PARAMOUNT ON PARADE (1930). DeMille sang Cooper's praises during the film, telling interviewers: "The thing about Gary Cooper that has impressed me most is his amazing alertness. From the time we made our first picture I have realized that he never
misses a thing that goes on before the camera." Foster, who brought a resolute and tough image to his role as leading Mountie, had appeared in a Cooper film, HIS WOMAN, nine years earlier, but as an extra. (Conversely, David Newell, who had appeared with Cooper in the color sequence in PARAMOUNT
ON PARADE, and who was being groomed for stardom in 1930 by that studio, had slipped into obscurity, appearing in NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE as an extra.) When it came to actors, DeMille was at best, ambivalent. He originally selected Joel McCrea to play the Texas Ranger but when McCrea had
commitments elsewhere, DeMille easily accepted Cooper as his substitute.
Most of the Saskatchewan setting was achieved by converting the backlot into the Canadian wilds; more than 300 pine trees were planted and a forest ranger was reportedly hired to patrol the man-made pine forest so that no careless worker burned it down. His real job was to drive off the seagulls
that were forever perching on the branches when the cameras were turned on. DeMille defended the backlot setting, even though it gives a confining, almost claustrophobic look to the film. Said the director: "The trouble with filming the real thing is that on the screen it looks sham. Overmuch
confidence in Nature won't do." The backlot setting also allowed DeMille to plant no less than two dozen loudspeakers through which he could cue his hordes of extras during the battle scenes. Before the film was completely cast, DeMille expressed his worries over getting just the right actress to
play the fiery half-breed female second lead. And from the beginning, Goddard went after the part. Marlene Dietrich was suggested for the role but she was nearing 40 and DeMille thought her too sophisticated for the role. (Dietrich would surprise DeMille and the rest of the world, however, by
later playing--at 47--a dark-skinnned, earthy, and fire-eating gypsy in a memorable role in GOLDEN EARRINGS, costarring with Ray Milland.) Rita Hayworth, then 21, was also considered by DeMille but the budding star had no influence in the studio system at the time and neither did Simone Simon, who
had also been suggested for the half-breed role. Goddard finally sent DeMille a note which read, "Are you going to give me that part?" DeMille did not respond, except to tell friends that he resented pushy actresses. Hearing nothing, Goddard sent another note, this time correcting the script
itself which she had read and researched. Said Goddard to DeMille: "C.B.--Loupette, the character in the script, means little he-wolf. Shouldn't you change it to Louvette, little she-wolf?" DeMille was surprised to learn that the actress was correct. He had the script changed but he still refused
to cast Goddard. The actress was as stubborn as DeMille. She went to makeup genius Wally Westmore, who headed Paramount's makeup department. Westmore gave the actress a new black dye and stringy hairdo, coating her body with a dark tint and the costume department adorned her in greasy buckskins.
She then showed up in DeMille's offices. The director, busy with elaborate sketches on his set-up shots, was told by his secretary that "Louvette is here to see you." Absent-mindedly, DeMille, without looking up from the sketches, said: "Send Louvette in." In swaggered the made-up Goddard. In
DeMille's own words: "A dark girl, with eyes that could smolder or melt, came in, made up as a half-breed and costumed as such a girl would dress on the wild Canadian frontier in the 1880s." Goddard carried a bullwhip which she snaked along with her slinky movements. Once at his side, she raised
her pretty leg and put her foot on his desk. Said the actress in her best French-Indian accent: "You teenk you wan beeg director, hah? Me, Louvette, show you!" Such antics never sat well with the very formal DeMille but the actress so impressed him with her desire to have the part that he
relented. "That was enough," he later admitted, "Paulette Goddard had the part."
Sometimes DeMille had to subdue his actors for the sake of sanity. Though Overman was very low-key as a skinflinty but kindhearted Scotsman, his rival and friend, Tamiroff, could not help but overplay any scene he was in, no matter how many times DeMille ordered the Russian-born actor to subdue
his raging emotions. But the worst offender in the scene-chewing category was a real native American. Among the hundreds of Indian extras DeMille used in NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE was a Navajo warrior named Tom Hightree whose war whoop was so loud and blood-curdling that DeMille yelled "cut" and
approached the Indian actor, telling him: "Mr. Hightree, please! If you could just moderate a little. It's too harrowing. After all, this is only a massacre." NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE went on to be one of the top six box-office grossers of 1940 and reaped a fortune for Paramount, as well as
getting five Academy Award nominations. These included Bauchens for Best Editing (which won), Milner for Best Cinematography, Young for Best Musical Score, Dreier and Anderson for Best Art Direction, and Loren Ryder for Best Sound. leave a comment
