Northern Patrol (195-)

One of the better films in the Kirby Grant and Chinook series is also one of the last ones. in the series.

The film begins with Grant heading heading home on vacation. Stopping at a cabin he finds what appears to be an apparent suicide. The troubling thing is the man killed himself in the middle of making breakfast. The suicide was obviously murder. Grant dives into the investigation and instantly realizes that something was up with the brother of the man's fiance. Things get worse from there.

Solid adventure film holds our attention thanks to a complicated plot involving a good number of characters. This isn't simply a small group of people circling each other, rather characters show up and add to what Kirby knows. Additionally there are a couple of unexpected twists. It keeps things moving and interesting in more than a by the numbers way.

One of my favorite films in the series.

In Brief: Fangs of the Arctic (1953)

Webb and Chinook take on a new recruit name Kelly. They head back to Kelly's old home town to look into the murder of a trapper. Kelly is looking forward to going home so he can look up an old girlfriend, however things take a dark turn...

Solid adventure is a great deal of fun  In a lot of ways the film covers well worn ground but at the same time the film has a twist or two that are completely unexpected (and no I won't tell you what they are.) Its the twists that make the film worth watching.

FANGS OF THE ARCTIC was the eighth of nine films in the series and while the film remains polished and well made, the series feels like it kind of was running out of steam. We've been to this well one or two times too many. I wouldn't have been surprised if the series had ended with this film... on the other hand the series didn't and the next film is one of the best in the whole series.

Out now in Kirby grant and Chinook triple feature from the Warner Archive

Trail of the Yukon (1949)

Despite being set in the Yukon territory TRAIL OF THE YUKON is a full on western. If you changed the men’s hats, replaced talk of the Mounties with US Marshalls and removed the snow this film would become a western without anyone noticing. It has a plot that is so by rote that I’m guessing that the story was moved north of the border just to make it stand out. Its so by rote that you kind of wonder how this spawned a series that last eight more films,

TRAIL OF THE YUKON is not a bad film, not by a long shot, it’s just not that outstanding. Watching the other films in the series you know why the series went on, Kirby Grant had a real character and the films are lifted by a force of personality. I suspect that’s because the other films were set up to be about Grant and his dog, this film is telling a wider story.

The story here has a group of men robbing the local bank. After fleeing into the wilderness the group is double crossed by traitors in their midst and the money is stolen again. This results in a running gun battle in canoes. One of the double crossed men gets away with the money while the traitors go off after him. An injury brings Grant and Chinook into the mix as everyone tries to figure out who the real bad guy is.

As I said this isn’t a bad film. It’s very entertaining on its own terms but it suffers from being too similar to a couple other hundred films. Worse in this film the character Grant is given to play is way too similar to other characters. They look alike, the sound alike and if you aren’t pay attention you’re going to wonder who is who. I did.

TRAIL is a very good film on it’s own terms, and recommended to anyone wanting to see a good film, especially to fans of the Kirby and Chinook series which started here. The film is now out on a triple feature disc from the Warner Archive

Call of the Kondike (1950)

Corporal Webb and Chinook escort a young woman to Healey's Crossing in order to find out what happened to her father who has been missing for three months.  Webb has also been dispatched because weird things have begun to happen in the area and two trappers have gone missing.

Very entertaining entry in the series is, to be perfectly honest unremarkable as these things go plot wise, but at the same time it's warm and fuzzy. It's the reason that program pictures were so popular, you know what you were getting, and when they were put together correctly they were more entertaining than the regular features. This is a film that is a hell of a lot more entertaining than many main features. I would add that this film is also one of the best in the whole series.

While the film isn't big on action, there are only a couple of action set pieces, it is mysterious, you don't readily know who is doing what until a good clip into the film. I like the humor that runs through it with the early sequence of Webb trying to bathe Chinook and the question of Nancy's luggage on the trip a highlight.

Definitely worth seeing, especially if you have picked up the Kirby and Chinook DVDs from Warner Archive

A low key review of the low key Yukon Gold (1952)

Strangely low key Webb and Chinook film seems to throw out the violence and large scale bad guy activity for a slightly more measured plot.

The film opens when a man is killed on a riverboat heading down the river to Dawson City. The room is ransacked. Webb investigates and when he contacts the dead man’s niece he senses that all is not right with boom town where the dead man had a claim. Deciding to travel undercover with the niece to the boom town they find a gold rush town where only one mine seems to be producing anything thing. As Webb investigates several attempts are made to stop him.

While the film is fine on its own terms, it plays very much like any number of countless program westerns films from the period, the film is kind of a lesser film in Webb and Chinook pantheon. Compared to other films in the series this one is kind of static. There isn’t quite the level of violence that we saw I the previous films which ended up with most of the casts abused in one way or another. The other surprising thing is that the mystery of who is behind it doesn’t involve most of the cast. Strangely this isn’t a huge conspiracy where the machinations of the baddies leaves everyone either arrested or dead. I like it but I don’t love it.

Worth seeing since it comes as the bottom film in a triple bill from the Warner Archive, but I’m not sure its worth searching out on it’s own.

Northwest Territory (1951)

Watching the Corporal Rod Webb and Chinook series one thing is clear, the stories take place in a very violent location and the films don’t shy away from showing you the violence. Over the course of the few films I’ve seen to date people have been gassed, stabbed, shot (repeatedly), beaten up (repeatedly), attacked by Chinook (repeatedly), set on fire, thrown off a train (Yea I know it was a dummy but it was disturbing as the dummy collapsed like a real body would), thrown off a cliff and I won’t mention what happens to Chinook who also seems to get beaten into unconsciousness in every film. By what we think of classic film standards these films are very violent-hell even by today’s standards they are very violent. I was pondering the level of violence early into Northwest Territory as Chinook was tearing into another bad man, who earlier in the film had shot one of the characters and then set his cabin, and by implication the wounded man on fire. Say what you will these are cruel films.

The plot of Northwest Territory has Webb helping out an orphan named Billy to get to his grandfather’s cabin. As they approach the cabin they see the smoke and rush to the burning building where the Mountie pulls the dying grandfather out of his burning cabin. He says a few words and then promptly expires as his grandson looks on. This terrible act sets Webb and Chinook on the trail of some bad guys who are out to get the grandfather's secret oil claim- which means they are out to kill the boy and Chinook for good measure.

Watching a bunch of the films in this series it becomes clear that while they are extremely watchable, they are also not particularly complicated. The mysteries aren’t that mysterious from the outside. Everyone lines up neatly into good and bad, with the mastermind behind the theft or whatever being the person most obviously the suspect, say a mine owner stealing from himself or geologist going after an oil deposit. At the same time as you watch the films you begin to wonder how many people are actually tied up with the bad guys or what everyone’s true relationships are- Surprisingly many of the people involved tend to be somehow linked to the baddies. The writers seem intent on making all of the relationships as complicated as humanly possible.

So how is the film? Actually pretty good. Is it high art, no, but it is entertaining. I hate to say it but the whole kid in peril angle actually has some bite here since kids the films are so cruel you kind of expect the kid to get clocked somewhere along the way. Actually I like that the Warner Archive has put this film out out on DVD as part a triple feature. These films work best when you can watch a bunch of them at the same time when you can watch the rhythms of the series play out over several stories.

Yukon Manhunt (1951)

Rod Webb of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and his dog Chinook are sent to investigate the murder of payroll messengers and the theft of mining payrolls.  Accompanying the payroll on a train to the mining camp Webb is knocked unconcious when he takes Chinook to the baggage car after he wakes everyone up when he senses something. When he awakens Webb finds that some one has gassed the passengers, killed the messenger and taken the payroll.  Soon more bodies turn up and Webb and Chinook are in a desperate race to find out who done it.

As an example of the much maligned western sub-genre of Mountie Movies this isn't a bad movie. It has great location photography, nifty action and great characters. It moves like the wind and so long as you don't think about it this is great fun. I mean how many films from the period end with the hero not being allowed to take a vacation because of an axe murder?

The problem with this film is that the mystery makes no sense. Bone headed things are done from the instant that the plot is set in motion, the most glaring being how did the people who jumped Webb on the train get out of the train car with no one noticing (they were all awake) and secondly why did Webb let everyone go when he had all of the suspects trapped on the train? Does the lack of sense ruin the film? No,but it does make what could have been a great film just a good one.

Currently out on DVD from the Warner Archive  on a disc that includes Northwest Territory and Yukon Gold.

Snow Dog (1950)

When the Warner Archive put the "Webb and Chinook" films out on DVD they collected them under the name The Kirby Grant  and Chinook Collections. Wading into the first disc I couldn't figure out why that was, I mean Grant plays Webb in all of the films. Then when I got to the second film on the second disc, this one, I realized that while the majority of the films in the series involve a character named Rod Webb, there are few where Kirby is called Rod MacDonald or Bob MacDonald.  I'm not sure why, especially since the characters in the films are exactly the same.

This time out a white wolf who is a dead ringer for Chinook is going around killing trappers. The people in the area call it The Phantom Wolf. When MacDonald and Chinook run across the wolf and some it's handiwork Chinook battles the wolf until the Mountie intervenes. The phantom flees leaving behind it's collar its clear that someone is behind the attacks.

While less cruelly violent than some of the films that followed this film is just as  action packed as the best films in the series with some great fights (including one where Grant gets his ass kicked) and some solid intrigue. This is the sort of grand adventure film that made me understand why this series went to ten entries.

I like this film a great deal. Definitely a reason to pick up the volume of Kirby Grant and Chinook films that this appears.

Wolf Hunters (1949)

First of the Kirby Grant led series of films about Corpora1 Rod Webb and his dog Chinook based on the stories by James Oliver Curwood. The film is very different than the later films which could be very violent and had rather complicated plots.

The film opens with Paul Lautrec, a trapper finding some of his friends, murdered and their baby left alone. Taking the baby he heads home to report the murder. McTavish, the head of the fur company in the area, covets Lautrec's girlfriend and needing a patsy for his fur thefts (he's the one masterminding recent thefts and murders) send Lautrec to make delivery of furs and to meet his end at the hands of an assassin in the woods. Lautrec is shot but saved by the appearance of Webb and Chinook, who get the bullet out of the trapper before heading off to solve the murders. Things are further complicated by the cruel wife of McTavish's boss who sees in McTavish a chance to better financial situation.

More a conventional detective story where we know who did it and wait to to see how the detective solves the case, this the sort of story that would be right at home on TV nowadays. Its clear that this wsn't directly intended to begin a series of 8 films since Webb and Chinook are barely in the first half hour. In a weird way this film is almost two films with Webb and CHinook taking up half the film and everyone else  taking up the other.

Easily one of the best films in the series this film could very easily stand aloneon its own terms. Its one of the few films in the series which I would have been happy to buy all on it's lonesome. That it comes as part of a three film DVD from the Warner archive (its the first film on the second Webb and CHinook DVD) mmakes it all the more  a must buy.