SASKATCHEWAN

US, 1954, 84 minutes, Colour.
Alan Ladd, Shelley Winters, J. Carroll Naish, Robert Douglas.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.

A pleasantly routine western from Universal Studios in the fifties. It was directed by veteran Raoul Walsh, who had made so many action adventures (especially with Errol Flynn) at Warner Bros in the forties and fifties.

Alan Ladd is generally a sombre hero and this is the case as he portrays O'Rourke of the Royal Mounted Police. Shelley Winters in her more glamorous days is the conventional heroine. The film shows something of the background of Canadian history and is a tribute to the Royal Mounted Police. Its distinction is its colour photography in authentic locations.

1. An entertaining western? Its presentation of Canada and the United States? The Royal Mounted Police? Indians? Life and difficulties on the frontier?

2. Audience expectations of this kind of western? The conventions of the landscapes, the frontier, Indians and their banding together, the attacks on the whites, whites' aggression and defence of themselves? Heroism? misunderstanding? Romance? How well presented in this film? conventionally?

3. The importance of the colour photography in authentic locations? An authentic atmosphere? The typically rousing score? The special effects? especially for the sieges, the escape of the mounted police?

4. The film purporting to be based on fact? The history of Canada? Attitudes towards the police, the whites, Indians? The credibility of the clash of red and white? The attempt at giving some dignity to the Indians? Their desire for peace? The heroic sub?plot about O'Rourke, the romance and the heroine accused of murder? A satisfying plot for this kind of western?

5. Alan Ladd as hero - sombre, stolid type? his being half-brother to the Indian? His place in the Mounties? The attitude towards authority? and his leading the mutiny? His ability to guide the men in their escape from the Indians? His falling in love with the heroine? Her being accused of murder? The narrow escapes? The imprisonment of the men in the fort? His going to discuss with the Indians - his not being listened to? The final escape and his being vindicated? The happy ending? The stylised tribute to the Mounted Police in him?

6. Shelley Winters as heroine? surviving the Indian attack, her falling in love with O'Rourke, her being pursued by the sheriff and his vindictiveness, the truth about the death? Her participation in the adventures? In O'Rourke's escape? The happy ending?

7. The presentation of the Indians? friendly tribes, the Sioux and Sitting Bull? The oppression by the military? The taking away of arms? The reactions of the younger Indian? the pursuit of the Mounties? The fights? The final confrontation and the help of O'Rourke? The making of peace? A more just point of view on the Indians and their relationships with the whites?

8. The military? the letter of the law, official viewpoints? The taking away of arms from the Indians? Forcing them into reaction against the whites? The going by the book? The mutiny? Imprisonment? The final vindication?

9. The range of men on the trek? the heroic Irishman, the hardworking soldiers, the vindictive sheriff? and his death? rounding out the conventional story?

10. How satisfying this kind of western? As an adventure? Popular glimpse at the past? raising of historical and social issues in the United States and Canada?