From my favorite movies..

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

. . . have him watch NORTHWEST TRAIL. RCMP "Mountie" zero "Matt O'Brien" demonstrates at least ten law enforcement tactics sure to disturb the peace and get people killed. Some of O'Brien's more salient failings are a total lack of "shooting range" knowledge. He fires his revolver at targets hundreds of yards away (wasting all of his ammunition, of course). Fortunately, most of the crooks make the same mistake here, packing tiny pistols in situations clearly calling for military assault rifles (the earliest of which were available in the mid-1800s, a century BEFORE the time of NORTHWEST TRAIL). Even Mountie officers are so gullible and child-like that they're easy to kill and impersonate, NORTHWEST TRAIL shows. All the thugs have to do is to pick out a likely Mountie victim wearing a uniform close to their size, and instantly a random low-life becomes "Sgt. Means." One cannot watch a Mountie flick without noticing that joining the RCMP is the equivalent of an American signing on with a dating service. Naturally, Mounties appear to be as thick as bricks in figuring out obvious criminal plots, since dames and chicks possess the only facts and figures that can capture their short attention spans.

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.

Bob Steele plays a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Trooper in Derwin Abraham's outdoors epic "Northwest Trail" with Joan Woodbury cast as the damsel-in-distress. Actually, according to the goofs section at IMDb, the RCMP never officially had the rank of trooper. Instead, our hero should have been referred to as a constable. Unlike most of Bob Steele's B-movie westerns, "Northwest Trail" was lensed in color. Some familiar faces crop up in this oater, among them John Litel as a grim-faced Mountie and John Hamilton as the heroine's uncle. Charles Middleton who played Ming the Merciless in the "Flash Gordon" serials is on hand as a Frenchman. Poodles Hanneford. Steele and Woodbury have an interesting relationship that goes from adversial to romantic. Anyway, our stalwart hero Trooper Matt O'Brien is told to escort a haughty but hare-brained female, Katherine Owens (Joan Woodbury of "Paper Bullets") through rugged countryside so she can join her father. As it turns out, Ms. Owens has a suitcase packed with $20-thousand dollars. This money is the payroll for her father's . Trooper O'Brien stumbled onto Ms. Owens as he was riding out of the timberlands. She was asleep in her convertible until he arrived and awoke her. She asks for a tow, but the nearest gas station is a day's worth of travel away. O'Brien examines her automobile engine and uses her screw driver to adjust the carburetor of her vehicle because of the high altitude. Suddenly, Owens discovers that her car will crank. They bid each other goodbye and O'Brien is happy to be done with the snooty female. No sooner has O'Brien ridden into the nearest Mountie post than he runs into Ms. Owens again. She is talking to O'Brien's superior, Inspector McGrath (Ian Keith), when O'Brien walks in on them. Owens is heading to Morgan's Post, but she cannot reach it via automobile. During their journey, O'Brien and Owens have to bed down for the night. O'Brien advises that Owens sleep with her feet next to the fire. After the coyotes begin to serenade them, Owens relocated to the side of the fire near O'Brien. The following day a rider steals one of Owens' suitcase, but the doesn't get very far before two other men shoot him and take the suitcase. O'Brien pursues them, but they split up and O'Brien loses them. Meanwhile. Owens' horse goes lame, and she refuses to ride double with the Mountie until they come to a river. Reluctantly, Owens agrees to ride double and they ride into the ranch of Poodles Hanneford (Poodles Hanneford of "The Golden Horde") and his daughter, Jill (Gracie Hanneford), where Poodles is teaching Jill how to ride bareback. Poodles had complained in a letter to Inspector MacGarth about the stream at his place drying up and unseen assailants shooting at him when he tried to investigate. O'Brien leaves the lame horse with Poodles and Poodles loans them a horse. When they ride into Morgan's Post, Katherine relays the bad news to her uncle John (John Hamilton of "The Maltese Falcon") about losing the money. Pierre (Charles Middleton of "Flash Gordon") is just as upset with this revelation because Owens was supposed to buy timberland from him with part of the $20-thousand. The other part of the $2o-thousand was supposed to be used to pay off Owens' men.Whitey Yeager is one of the two men who shot the fellow who stole Owens' suitcase. His wife and he get into an argument. She throws a water pitcher at him and he tries to knife her. The ruckus goes from their bedroom to the barroom. O'Brien hears the fight and intervenes. Sergeant Means (John Litel of "They Died with Their Boots On") takes over the investigation and orders O'Brien back to camp. Means is none too happy with O'Brien's presence. After O'Brien leaves, he returns to see Poodles and they ride out to look into the dry creek. They are shot at and O'Brien captures Whitney after he takes a shot at him. Again, Means isn't happy to find about O'Brien's interference. No sooner has O'Brien ridden off with Poodles than Pierre opens fire on them and O'Brien arrests Pierre.Abrahams and scenarists Harvey Gates with additional dialogue contributions from L.J. Swabacher have fashioned a predictable but interesting modern-day western.

This is an enjoyable programmer from Lippert's Action Pictures with a nice interplay between the lovely Joan Woodbury and Bob Steele. Steele plays a Mountie who is unwillingly assigned to lead Woodbury to a remote region in the Canadian Woodlands. Woodbury's feisty character all but steals this film from action star Steele. She looks great on horseback.There is nothing serious here, just plenty of action, and nice interplay between the two principles. Troubled silent screen star Madge Bellamy, who had starred in Fox's first ever talkie, Mother Knows Best, makes her final screen appearance as the mistreated wife of one of the bad guys.The video I saw could have been much better. The two-strip Cinecolor was washed, and the images were not as clear as one would like, but these defects in no way took away from the enjoyable factor.