zardoz-13 Raoul Walsh directed four of Errol Flynn's World War II movies at Warner Brothers. The best was "Objective: Burma" with Flynn and company parachuting into Burma to show the British who could stop the Japanese. Mind you, the British hated Flynn for this film, and Warners had to pull it before the Brits firebombed it. Although "Objective: Burma" ranked as the best of Flynn's collaborations with Walsh, their initial propaganda outing "Desperate Journey" was far more fun but totally unrealistic. Walsh and Flynn teamed up between these two combat pictures with "Northern Pursuit." Unlike the authentic-looking "Objective: Burma" that took place in the Pacific Theater of Operations and "Desperate Journey" with its European Theater of Operations, "Northern Pursuit" took place in appropriately above us in Canada. Flynn is cast as intrepid Corporal Steve Wagner of Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman. Meantime, a U-Boat lands Luftwaffe Colonel Hugo von Keller (Helmet Dantine of "Hotel Berlin") in Canada via a U-Boat, but his men and he don't get far before their Indian tracker precipitate an avalanche that killed Keller's men and left him barely alive. He stumbles onto a German aviator "Northern Pursuit" is the kind of World War II that nobody can complain about. Aside from Louis Milestone's "Edge of Darkness" where Flynn played a native Norwegian and Walsh's "Uncertain Glory" where he played a French criminal, Flynn played a Canadian. The plot here involves Keller as he searches for the parts to assemble a German bomber, so his men and he can bomb the St. Lawrence Waterway. As far as I know, this was the only wartime film that targeted the waterway, while many others took aim at the Panama Canal. Anyway, the RCMP discover something treasonous about Wagner owing to his German ancestry and they drum him out. Of course, you know that neither Flynn nor his character could have anything to do with the Nazis. Although it isn't as much fun as "Desperate Journey," pulp novelist Frank Gruber, scenarist Alvah Bessie, with an uncredited William Faulkner make its twists and turns palatable enough to be consistently entertaining stuff. Julie Bishop plays Flynn's love interest who doesn't believe that he could turn his back on Canada.

richard-1787 This is not a great movie, not Robin Hood or The Sea Hawk. But neither is it the bad movie some of the previous reviewers suggest.I found it very suspenseful.If you try viewing it as the original, intended audience did back in 1943, when the U.S. was not winning the war in Europe and there were fears of German infiltration everywhere, you can imagine how relevant this story would have been to audiences.Tension is maintained for much of the movie by keeping us in suspense regarding Flynn's character's allegiances. No, of course we can't believe he's really a Nazi, but for the first half of the movie, it certainly seems as if he might be.I was surprised, and thrown off guard, by the number of "good guys" who got killed in this movie. That made it seem more real to me.The last scene is pure Hollywood, and pure corn. But up until then, there is a lot to admire and enjoy in this movie.

Robert J. Maxwell Flynn is a corporal in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They used to dress every day in colorful red jackets. Now they're known as the RCMP and dress like the Highway Patrol. It is a great loss.Flynn is more or less kidnapped by German pilot Helmut Dantine and his three Nazi companions and forced to lead them across the wilderness of northern Manitoba, where a bomber is stashed. The plan is to bomb the locks of the St. Lawrence River or to mar the splendor of Niagara Falls and disappoint all the honeymooners or something. It's not made very clear.These Nazis are really bad boys, especially the stern and handsome Helmut Dantine. They kidnap a couple of women to take along as hostages. They kill anyone who gets in their way, as well as anyone they meet who is of no use to the Nazi cause. And if one of their own people is disabled, he can kiss his life good-bye. That's the kind of rats they are.Flynn is handsome as usual, this being 1943. He'd not gotten along at all well with his previous director, Michael Curtiz, and by this time he was being directed by the Irish-American Raoul Walsh, whose work had as much zip but who was more tolerant of Flynn's boozing. The two had an agreement that Flynn wouldn't start drinking until 5 in the afternoon.There's a supposedly comic introduction and close, involving Julie Bishop as the daughter of a cheapskate Scottish shop keeper at a trading post. At the very end, when Flynn and Bishop are finally married, he embraces her at the party. She asks, "How many women have you loved before me?". Flynn replies, "None, darling," then turns his face towards the camera, rolls his eyes, and mutters, "What am I saying?" Some joke. He'd recently been in court on charges of statutory rape brought against him by two teen-aged cutie pies who testified that he'd seduced them aboard his yacht and had made love while wearing his socks. Some wag suggested that the movie Flynn had just completed, "Gentleman Jim," should have its name changed to just "Jim." A couple of outdoor shots were done at Sun Valley, Idaho, including an exciting ski chase. Most of the film was shot at the Warners' Studios. Yet, the settings are reasonably convincing, except that nobody's breath steams and all the clothing is so immaculate and clean, even Helmut Dantine's white turtle neck, which he never seems to change. A kind of minor narrative thread alludes to the Canadians' treatment of Indians, which here generates a resentment soon dissipated when they see what the Nazis are like. Actually, Canadian Indians, probably Algonkin-speaking Woods Cree in this case, were treated fairly well, at least compared to American Indians.Even with all the suspense, this isn't a very fast-paced movie, and either I was asleep when Flynn and his superiors worked out the plan to discover what the Nazis were up to, or else the editor should be tied to an evergreen tree trunk and left to be eaten alive by ravenous timber wolves, or maybe -- this could get to be fun -- maybe he could be impaled repeatedly by an enraged moose.

oldblackandwhite Reading the other IMDb reviews of Northern Pursuit, I began to wonder if the monkey-see-monkey-do reviewers trashing it watched the same movie I did! Or if they watched it at all. This Mounties versus Nazis picture bears little resemblance, as claimed, to The 49th Parallel and even less to Across The Pacific.From the opening scene with a German submarine breaking through the ice in Hudson Bay to the climatic showdown in a bomber aloft, Northern Pursuit is high-powered excitement all the way. Not surprisingly, with all the high-powered talent Warner Brothers threw into this enjoyable World War II action picture. Top action director Raoul Walsh directs top action star Errol Flynn with a script by popular western writer Frank Gruber and high class novelist William Faulkner. Solid support is provided by Helmut Dantine, reprising his ruthless Nazi officer from Edge Of Darkness (see my review), perky Julie Bishop, Tom Tully, John Ridgely, and Gene Lockhart in another of what was becoming his stock sneaky, Nazi sympathizer role. First rate camera work by Sid Hickox and the smooth editing typical in movies of this era blends studio sets and Idaho ski resort locations with skillfully dovetailed backdrop matting to so successfully convince us we were above the Artic Circle, it gave me a chill at times. The action is propelled along by one Adolphe Deutsch's better scores, enlivened by some input by the great Max Steiner. The story of German descent Mountie Flynn penetrating a Nazi-sympathizing Canadian spy organization co-operating with escaped German prisoners of war maintains suspense and interest throughout. The sharply directed action includes an avalanche, a prison camp breakout, a hair-raising ski chase, and a shoot-out in a mine shaft. Characterization and acting are top notch. Dantine's Nazi Colonel is particularly well realized. This Austrian refugee actor no doubt knew what real-life Nazis were like. He had had to flee his home country because because of his anti-Nazi activities.While not a classic of the genre like Edge Of Darkness, Nothern Pursuit is a top "A" production war/intrigue thriller, effective WWII propaganda yet enjoyable, exciting, smooth entertainment from Warner Brothers' and Old Hollywood's Golden years.