Susannah of the Mounties

One of the movies that was recently added to the FXM rotation and which I had not seen before is Susannah of the Mounties. So I recorded one of last month's showings, planning to watch it and do a post on it the next time it shows up. Well, it's going to be on tomorrow (Nov. 9) at 6:00 AM and again on Thurdsay, Nov. 10.

As you can guess from an opening credits topped by Shirley Temple, it's Shirley playing Susannah. But first there's a little bit of scene-setting being done. It's the erly 1880s in what would now be Alberta or Saskatchewan, where the Canadians were building a railroad across their dominion, completing it in 1885. As with the more southerly locales in the US, the advance of white settlers meant conflict with various tribal peoples who were already on the land, in this case the Blackfeet (and indeed, Fox was able to get some real members of the Blackfeet for background roles, although of course the main Blackfeet adults were played by white guys). The Blackfeet have attacked one such group of pioneers, killing everybody but little Susannah, who hid under a barrell.

Susannah is rescued after the attack by Angus Montague (Randolph Scott), a member of the Mounties at a time when they were the law in this part of Canada and they didn't even have the army out there to keep order and pacify the Blackfeet. Indeed, it's the job of the Mounties to get the Blackfeet to sign a treaty. Needless to say, that's a controversial issue within the Blackfeet, with Chief Big Eagle (Maurice Moscovitch) more or less in favor and Wolf Pelt (Victor Jory) more or less opposed. But as a sign of good faith, Big Eagle sends Little Chief to stay at the Mounties' fort. One of the running subplots of the movie is that Little Chief and Susannah are going to become friends, but on his terms, which means Susannah is expected to act much the way a Blackfeet woman would. At the same time, Susannah becomes well-liked at the fort, because of course everybody loves little Shirley Temple.

The more grown-up plot involves the railroad being constructed in the area, with Harlan Chambers (Lester Matthews) managing the work crew. Some of their horses are stolen, which presents a problem, because it means there's a good possibility of renewed conflict between the whites and the Blackfeet. When Chambers discovers that the theft was done by Wolf Pelt, who was trying to sell Chambers back the horses he had stolen, Chambers threatens to call in the army to subjugate the Blackfeet. War is in the air.

The Blackfeet attack, kidnapping Montague in the process since they don't realize there's just as much infighting among the whites as there is among the Blackfeet over how to deal with the other side. Susannah is distraught, and actually sets out for the Blackfeet encampment to try to find Montague, leading to the film's climax.

Susannah of the Mounties has a lot of the formula that made Shirley so popular in the mid 1930s, although she was getting a little older and that formula isn't working quite so well. There's also a lot less singing and dancing than what you'd expect in most of Shirley's movies from her days at Fox. In fact, the scenes between Susannah and Little Chief are the best part of the movie, with Susannah learning about Blackfeet customs, even getting wasted after smoking a peace pipe. (I can't imagine little Shirley doing the "Dave's not here" bit, however.)

That's not to say that Susannah of the Mounties is bad by any means; it's more that it's not the first Shirley Temple movie I'd recommend to show people what she was really about. Note also that the print FXM is running is a colorized print. The color isn't bad, but the lack of Natalie Kalmus' name on the credits was a clear sign that this might not be real color.