The Canadians (1961 film)
The Canadians | |
---|---|
20th Century-Fox | |
Release date | 11 March 1961 |
Running time | 85 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom Canada |
Language | English |
The Canadians is a 1961 Anglo–Canadian CinemaScope Western film written and directed by Burt Kennedy. It starred Robert Ryan, John Dehner and Torin Thatcher.
It was Kennedy's directorial debut.
Plot
A group of
In response the North-West Mounted Police are formed, the forerunner to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.[1]
Cast
- Robert Ryan as Inspector William Gannon
- John Dehner as Frank Boone
- Torin Thatcher as Sgt. McGregor
- Burt Metcalfe as Constable Springer
- John Sutton as Superintendent Walker
- Jack Creley as Greer
- Scott Peters as Ben
- Richard Alden as Billy
- Teresa Stratas as White woman
- Michael Pate as Chief Four Horns
Production
The film was the directorial debut of Burt Kennedy, who had established himself by the late 1950s as one of the leading writers of Westerns.[2] It was originally called Royal Canadian Mounted.[3]
Kennedy later recalled, "I didn't know what I was doing. I remember the first shot had like 400 horses in it, and I got the shot and the cameraman said, 'What do we do now?' And I thought, 'You mean I gotta do more?' So that's the reason I went into television [after The Canadians] to find out how you shoot pictures."[4]
He also said "I had a wonderful cameraman... it was beautiful country... the story was pretty good actually, because it was based on an actual event, but – I was so used to playing scenes in Randy [Randolph Scott] pictures, I thought I could get away with them. But I couldn't. You can play good scenes with bad actors and (they're going to be) bad scenes. So I trapped myself... [Robert Ryan looked] like he didn't know what he was doing. It wasn't his fault. He was so grim in it. And the picture was so grim." [5]
References
- ^ The Canadians, IMDB
- ^ Galloway, Doug (21 February 2001). "Writer-helmer Burt Kennedy dies". Variety.
- ProQuest 167764425.
- ^ "How I Got to Call the Shots – JWAYNE.com". jwayne.com. 14 March 2000.
- ISBN 9780786455683.
External links
- The Canadians at the TCM Movie Database
- The Canadians at IMDb