Northwest Passage (film)

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Northwest Passage

Directed by	King Vidor
Produced by	Hunt Stromberg
Written by	Laurence Stallings Talbot Jennings
Starring	Spencer Tracy
Music by	Herbert Strothart
Cinematography	William V. Skall/ Sidney Wagner
Editing by	Conrad A. Nervig
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Release date(s)	February 23, 1940 September 29, 1941 October 3, 1943 April 9, 1949 (Rereleased in March 1955) May 27, 1949 May 5, 1951 May 10, 1954 October 25, 1955
Running time	125 minutes
Language	English
IMDb profile

Northwest Passage is a 1940 film, starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey, and others. It is based on a novel by Kenneth Roberts titled Northwest Passage (1937).

It is set in the mid 18th century during the French and Indian War (as the Seven Years' War in North America is usually known in the US). It gives an account of an attack by Rogers' Rangers on Saint-François-du-Lac, Quebec, a settlement of the Abenakis, an American Indian tribe. The purpose of the raid is to avenge the many attacks on British settlers and deter further attacks.

The title is something of a misnomer, since this film is a truncated version of the original story, and only at the end do we find that Rogers and his men are about to go on a search for the Northwest Passage.

Some viewers^{[citation needed]} criticized the depiction of American Indians as racist and extreme, even by the standards of Hollywood at the time. This treatment, however, mirrors the book which was highly regarded for its historical research and accuracy.

The movie was filmed in central Idaho, near Payette Lake and the city of McCall.

Director King Vidor attempted to make a sequel to the film in which Roger's Rangers find the Northwest Passage. But the filming never began. This is why the film Northwest Passage was subtitled Book One: Rogers Rangers.

[edit] External links

Northwest Passage at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by King Vidor

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