Ann Blyth is Rose Marie, a young orphan woman rescued from the wilderness by Mountie Capt. Mike Malone (Howard Keel). Rose Marie balks at first, but soon starts trusting Mike and the rest of the Mounties.
In fact, she becomes a regular little Mountie herself, until the commandment insists she go to town and learn how to act like a woman under the training of Lady Jane Dunestock (Marjorie Main).
Meanwhile, Rose Marie meets sometimes-outlaw Jim Duval. Now she has two men under her spell — Jim, who she comes to love, and Malone, who she thinks of more as a father.
When an Indian chief turns up dead, Duval is a prime suspect, and Malone sets out after him, pitting the two men against one another just when Malone has gotten permission to marry from his superiors and just when Jim has asked Rose Marie to go off into the wilderness with him.
Review:
The third filming of this story: It was made as a silent film starring Joan Crawford in 1928 and as a Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy vehicle in 1936.
This version of the story differs from both of those, but it’s a pretty hum-drum affair, though at one point the Indian drums start beating and Joan Taylor, as pretty Indian maiden named Wanda, starts running about in a strangely erotic dance to celebrate the arrival of summer.
She’s also central to the plot because of her jealousy over Jim’s love of Rose Marie. Jim’s possible motive for killing the chief: A fur trapper who loves the wilderness, he’s apparently ready to settle down and mine for gold on a piece of Indian land, but the chief keeps raising his asking price.
Directed by:
Mervyn LeRoy
Cast:
Ann Blyth … Rose Marie Lemaitre
Howard Keel … Capt. Mike Malone
Fernando Lamas … James Severn Duval
Bert Lahr … Barney McCorkle
Marjorie Main … Lady Jane Dunestock
Joan Taylor … Wanda
Ray Collins … Inspector Appleby
Chief Yowalchie … Black Eagle
Runtime: 104 min.
Memorable line:
Capt. Mike Malone to Rose Marie: “Now listen first and stab me afterwards. You don’t really think you can get away from a Mountie, do you? Mounties always get their man, even when it’s a girl.”
Lady Jane: “Jim Duval may be ornery, but he’s no killer.”
Capt. Mike Malone: “He and the chief quarrelled over some land, and Jim threatend him. I heard that myself. And it was Jim’s knife in the body.”
Rose Marie: “Mike, please, don’t go. Listen to me. I come with you.”
Malone: “It’s no place for a woman.”
Rose Marie: “But he kill you.”
Malone: “Don’t you worry. I take a lot of killing.”
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