HEART OF THE NORTH

US, 1938, 77 minutes, Colour.
Dick Foran, Gloria Dickson, Gale Page, Alan Jenkins.
Directed by Lewis Seiler.

Heart of the North is a Warner Bros B-production of 1938. What makes it of some historical interest is that it was Warner Bros' fourth colour film (after Gold and the Women, Gold is Where You Find It, The Adventures of Robin Hood).

The file is about the Royal Canadian mounties and 'respectfully' dedicated to then - for they always get their man. The file has colourful locations and beautiful scenery. The plot is reminiscent of latter-day television episodes. The film highlights on the mounties themselves and their discipline and way of life, the frontier with the gold towns and the explorers. There is some violence. Russell Simpson appears as a prospector who is almost lynched under suspicion of stealing gold. However, the owner of the hotel is in league with a gang of robbers who waylay a riverboat. The heroics are left to burly hero Dick Foran who eventually commandeers a plane and catches up with the villains - including a fistfight on the top of a cliff, the Mountie ultimately getting his man and, although he had been under strain, earning a medal.

Tiere is a heroine who is the daughter of the prospector. There is a suspicious woman - who wants her man to return to the city and implicated the prospector in guilt. There is also a precocious little girl full of vital patriotism.

All in all, unexceptional and unexceptionable entertainment - a film of its time.