Northwest Passage (1940)

Robert Young is Langdon Towne, a young artist who was also an aspiring pastor before being kicked out of Harvard for mocking the university president in an editorial cartoon.

Returning home, he finds himself rebuffed by his fiance’s family for his misfortune, then in trouble with Wisemen Clagett when he gets drunks and begins criticizing the local magistrate.

To avoid a stint in jail, he runs off into the wildnerness with buddy “Hunk” Mariner (Walter Brennan), intending to head West to paint Indians.

He winds up at a tavern where he helps a man sober up an Indian guide, then imbides in some of the hot rum mixture the same man concocts.

When he wakes, Langdon finds himself and his buddy at Crown Point; the man he met at the tavern was none other than Maj. Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy), commander of Rogers Rangers.

Now Towne and Mariner are Rangers. And Rogers is counting on Towne to use his artistic abilities to map the region his force is about to explore.

At first, none of the Rangers know the true nature of the mission: To destroy an Abenaki Indian village at St. Francis, deep in enemy territory during the French and Indian war.

It’s going to be a difficult journey. And once the French discover the boats the Rangers use on the way to St. Francis, the journey back to safety might prove even more difficult.

Spencer Tracy as Maj. Robert Rogers, determined to destroy an Indian stronghold in Northwest Passage (1940)

Robert Young as Langdon Towne, documenting the mission by Rogers Rangers in Northwest Passage (1940)

Review:

An impressive cinematic feat for 1940. But a surprisingly dull film.

Director King Vidor and company do a fine job of pressing home the perils of Maj. Rogers’ undertaking. Scenes of his Rangers pulling heavy boats up a steep hill, crossing a raging river with the help of a human chain and the attack on the Abenaki village are especially well done.

But the script does a poor job of creating human narratives around the characters. That deadens the impact when one of Rogers men has to be left behind when he breaks his leg. When another goes crazy from hunger and wanders off into the wilderness, thinking he’s back home. And when yet another goes revenge crazy, carrying off the head of an Indian after the attack with plans to feast on it. At least until caught in the act.

Robert Young’s Langdon Towne is the main character viewers are introduced to before the Rangers’ mission begins. He’s a former Harvard student, an aspiring artist. A man who hopes to “paint live Indians, not dead ones.”

But the film works best as the story of Maj. Rogers. And might have worked better if the script focused on him from the start. And especially if viewers learned more about what’s happened in his past, why he’s hellbent on exterminating the Abenaki tribe and why a vicious attack on the sleeping Indian village is justified.

Then there’s the film’s title, which comes with the subtitle: Book 1: Rogers Rangers. The film was based on a historical novel called Northwest Passage. But, the search for the Northwest Passage is barely mentioned until the final five minutes of the film, when the Rangers are about to embark on their next mission.

Clearly, there was the intent to make a sequel. It never happened.

Walter Brennan as Hunk Mariner, mostly starved and in no mood for more orders in Northwest Passage (1940)

Addison Richards as Crofton, filling in his fellow Rangers on Indian atrocities, including the death of his brother, in Northwest Passage (1940)

Directed by:
King Vidor

Cast:
Spencer Tracy … Maj. Robert Rogers
Robert Young … Langdon Towne
Walter Brennan … “Hunk” Mariner
Ruth Hussey … Elizabeth Browne
Nat Pendleton … “Cap” Huff
Louis Hector … The Rev. Browne
Robert Barrat … Humphrey Towne
Lumsden Hare … Lord Amherst
Donald MacBride … Sgt. McNott
Isabel Jewell … Jennie Coit
Douglas Walton … Lt. Avery
Addison Richards … Lt. Crofton
Hugh Sothern … Jesse Beacham
Regis Toomey … Webster
Montagu Love … Wiseman Clagett
Lester Matthews … Sam Livermore
Truman Bradley … Capt. Ogden

Runtime: 126 min.

Isabel Jewell (right) as Jennie Coit, a young woman rescued from the Indian village in Northwest Passage (1940)

Robert Young as Langdon Towne with Elizabeth Browne (Ruth Hussey), the woman he dreams of returning home to in Northwest Passage (1940)

Memorable lines:

Ranger Sergeant, upon meeting Langdon Towne: “The smartest Indian alive can’t think half as much like an Indian as Major Rogers can.”

Langdon Towne to Maj. Rogers: “I want to paint live Indians, not dead ones.”

Maj. Robert Rogers, on the suggestion that his mission be delayed by a year: “General Amherst, speaking for my men and myself, those red hellions up there have come down and hacked and murdered us. Burned our homes. Stolen women. Brained babies. Scalped stranglers. And roasted officers over slow fires. For five years. If you were in our place, what would you do?”

“Hunk” Mariner: “Funny thing about a boat. It’s no good to you on the top of a hill.”

Hugh Sothern as Jesse Beacham, one of the old-timers in Maj. Roger’s detachment in Northwest Passage (1940)

Montagu Love as Wiseman Clagett, the man whose tyranical ways prompts Langdon Towne to flee his home in Northwest Passage (1940)

“Hunk” Mariner, as the attack on the Indian village is about to begin: “Kind of wish I was back in jail now.”

Maj. Rogers, to a badly wounded Langdon Towne, who’s going to try to keep up with the Rangers on foot: “I’ll see you at sundown, Havard.”

Jennie Coit, a rescued prisoner, speaking to another Ranger as she helps the wounded Towne: “You sure oughta be glad that hole isn’t in you.”
Jesse Beachum: “I guess you’re right. But that’s as nice a place for a hole as I could think of if I thought all day. If you have to have a hole.”

Maj. Rogers, of Dunbar’s detachment: “Any of them get away?”
Langdon Thorne: “No. They killed them all. They were playing ball with their heads.”
Maj. Rogers: “You men better dry your blankets. We might have a little trouble.”
Thorne: “We might have a little trouble? We might have a little trouble?”

Robert Young as Langdon Thorne and Walter Brennan as Hunk Mariner, meeting Maj. Rogers in Northwest Passage (1940)

Spencer Tracy as Maj. Robert Rogers, barking out orders after a successful attack in Northwest Passage (1940)

Douglas Walton as Lt. Avery, dreaming of home in Concord where food is plentiful in Northwest Passage (1940)

Spencer Tracy as Maj. Robert Rogers and Robert Young as Langdon Towne, waiting for the attack to begin in Northwest Passage (1940)