Thu 10 Sep 2015
A Western TV Review: HUDSON’S BAY “Pilot Episode” (1958)
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[7] Comments
HUDSON’S BAY. CTV, Canada, 1959-60. “Pilot episode.” Barry Nelson (Jonathan Banner), George Tobias (Pierre Falcone). Guest Cast: Toby Tarnow, Ben Lennick, Jean Caval, Jim Barron, Sean Franck. Director: Alvin Rakoff.
Quite a few episodes of this series exist and are available either on YouTube or circulating in the collectors’ market. Barry Nelson plays an agent of the famed Hudson’s Bay Company, his bailiwick being essentially all of Canada, and more, or so the opening narration tells us: Labrador to California, Minnesota to Alaska. That’s quite a chunk or territory for two men to cover, but Jonathan Banner and his French-Canadian sidekick Pierre Falcone seem to have done it, for a period of one season, or 39 episodes.
There was no onscreen title for the episode I watched, and there seems to be some uncertainty about it. The more reliable authority, as far as I have been able to determine, is Classic TV Archives, which does refer to it as the pilot and quite possibly episode one of the series itself. The official title, according to CTVA, is “Battle of Mississippi,” a/k/a “Indian Girl Witness” or “The Celebration.”
IMDb, on the other hand, has the story listed under the title “Revelry at Red Deer,” which both they and CTVA have listed as Episode #8. The synopsis as given on IMDb matches the story I watched, for whatever worth that may be.
In this episode, a fight breaks out over a Indian girl at a party held at the end of a hunting and trapping season, and when one of the men who was attracted to her is found murdered, the one who thought he had a prior claim to her is accused.
Toby Tarnow, a Canadian actress, plays Little Dove (or Little Doe or Little Dory, sources vary) but has little or no dialogue. One telling scene occurs when Banner tries to locate her as a witness by going to the chief of tribe, and the chief says she has no tribe.
Another longer scene consists of members of two trading companies shooting it out, with lots of dramatic deaths and falls from higher regions of the trading post. This makes sure that the story fills out to its full 25 minutes of so.
If this series had been filmed in color, I think it might be worth further watching, but in black-and-white and with only a very ordinary episode under my belt, I think I’ll pass. (The first seven minutes are included in the clip below.)
September 10th, 2015 at 5:48 pm
An interesting idea for a series, but why do a series set in photogenic Canada in black and white?
Nelson seems an odd choice for a frontier or Western series, he always struck me as the most contemporary of actors, but Tobias as his French Canadian aide seems a natural.
I have a half formed theory about actors who don’t feel authentic in Western settings and this would seem to be an example of it.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:19 pm
I’ve always meant to watch that CLIMAX episode with Barry Nelson playing Jimmy Bond, but so far I haven’t.
September 10th, 2015 at 7:42 pm
#1 :
Why do a series set in photogenic Canada in black and white?
Recall that in 1959-60, color television was still the exception rather than the rule.
Especially for a film series whose destination was the US syndication market, where most of the prospective customers could only show it in B/W anyway.
From the clues, Northstar was a Canadian independent company, working with a very low budget. Most likely, much of that budget was earmarked for the two American lead actors, who would need travel and other expenses for Canadian location and studio work.
My knowledge of Canadian network TV is limited, but I believe that CTV, which was not government controlled or operated, was in its early days at this point, with far fewer assets for production than the CBC would have had, thus requiring the participation of United Artists TV as a partner (mainly financial). Any Canadian posters who can correct this, feel free to do so.
George Tobias, a Russian-Jewish New Yorker, seems natural as a French-Canadian?
But of course!
During his long stay at Warners, he’d played just about every nationality available.
By the bye … Ever hear the story of what happened to George Tobias when he died?
Tobias lived by himself at a ranch in Lucerne Valley, a remote area in the mountains of central California.
His houseman, who didn’t live in, found the body, and because Tobias didn’t have a telephone, it took him quite a while to notify the authorities.
The nearest local mortician, whose job it was to certify the passing, picked up Tobias’s remains in his station wagon (the regular hearse was in use).
I’ll note here in passing that in his retirement, Mr. Tobias had foresworn such niceties as shaving and barbering.
Driving into the nearest town, the mortician’s station wagon got into a fender-bender with another car.
As the drivers exchanged information, a couple of would-be car thieves jumped out from the side of the road and into the station wagon, and roared off.
Long story short: the station wagon was found not long afterward – with both doors standing open, the engine running and Mr. Tobias resting peacefully in the back.
OK, it’s nothing to do with the post, but I like the story, so there too.
September 10th, 2015 at 8:30 pm
I’m pretty sure Tobias had played a French Canadian before, but as Mike says he had played almost everything else.
I understood budget and time frame, it just seemed strange to do a series that would have so benefited from color in a rather limited format. The great outdoors and all that. One reason BONANZA went with color was to take advantage of color and larger screens.
Steve,
CASINO ROYALE isn’t as bad as some reviews once you get beyond ” Cardsharp Jimmy Bond.” Peter Lorre is at least interesting as Le Chiffre and Linda Christian beautiful. Certainly it is worth seeing historically, and at times pretty close to the book even of Felix Leiter looks disturbingly like Fleming’s description of Bond.
I liked Nelson, just had trouble seeing him as a frontier or Western hero. He was damn good in the short that became the last of MGM’s CRIME DOES NOT PAY series and as the neighbor of Inger Stevens and Don Murray in THE BORGIA STICK (the photo of him wielding a machine gun in the JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION is from the latter).
September 11th, 2015 at 1:12 am
The Jimmy Bond thing annoys me. He was credited as James Bond. The girl calls him Jimmy (as a term of endearment being ex-lovers) but no one else does.
Steve, I would recommend you watch it. It is a good serious drama for its era and the torture scene will never let you think of him as Jimmy again.
September 11th, 2015 at 1:37 am
The major reason that Bonanza was done in color:
NBC and its parent company RCA were starting a major push in selling their color TV sets. Bonanza to them was a form of “product placement”.
Remember that in 1959, the four stars of the show were hardly the household names that they eventually became.
Lorne Greene was a newscaster in Canada.
Pernell Roberts was a character actor who had to be talked into wearing a toupee for his part.
Dan Blocker had been the comic relief on another NBC Western, Cimarron City, the previous season; the “experts” felt that he’d have the same function on Bonanza.
Michael Landon was the Teenage Werewolf – a part he didn’t exactly brag about at the time.
Bonanza‘s best-known “star” was Vaughn Monroe, who did the weekly commercials for RCA Color Television sets.
Every week, the Mellow Bellow would intone “RCA – The Most Trusted Name in Electronics!”
– and that’s how we knew that the folks were watching Bonanza on Saturday night, instead of dowdy old black-and-white Perry Mason or Dick Clark.
RCA/NBC’s major investment versus a Canadian indie’s penny-pinched half-hour –
– as they say these days, you do the math.
September 12th, 2015 at 12:22 am
Mike,
I just used BONANZA as an example of something designed to exploit the medium (and sell television sets — and even BONANZA was largely set and back lot bound). Again, I’m aware this was a small production, which is why it seems strange that it chose a format so designed to take advantage of the vast open spaces and beauty of Canada when it was so limited in using them.
I realize the title has name recognition, and for Canadians at least hints of adventure and thrills (I’m not sure that is true for most American viewers). But then again there were set bound series about pirates, scouts, Roberts Rangers, and just about everything else in the era not to mention outer space and alien planets (many of which looked suspiciously like Lone Pine).
It would be a bit like calling a series Monument Valley then filming the whole thing indoors on a studio back lot in black and white. At least some of the globe trotting spy series of the era had lots of stock footage to rely on to feel as if they were shooting in European capitals. It is always easier to fake urban.
I felt a bit this way about Warner’s KLONDIKE which save for newsreel footage was set bound for the most part with only some footage from ICE PALACE and a few other films (and some of those relied heavily on sets because of difficulty filming in the cold and snow) to give the background scope. Obviously designed to exploit interest in the 49th state then in the news my memory of it is that it was less impressive that way than the average episode of SGT PRESTON.
I know this was standard practice, but the few series that did use location shooting effectively hold up much better today along with those that recognized the limits of television then and were designed to take advantage of them.
Much as I applaud the invention of many creators of early television in overcoming budgetary and other problems to offer more than drawing room dramas and comedy to this day I am annoyed when yet another episode of yet another cop show ends in a shootout or prolonged set piece in a damn warehouse. Watch American television and you would swear half the countries crime happens in warehouses not to mention science fiction, international intrigue, and superheroes.
I always thought they should just do a series called WAREHOUSE COP and get it over with. Entire dramas set only in a warehouse. This week Warehouse Cop investigates murder in a warehouse in Hong Kong, next week a warehouse in Moscow and so on. This could have been backed by a summer replacement series, EMPTY BARN COP and ABANDONED SHACK COP and the ever popular APARTMENT HOUSE STAIRWELL COP, ROOFTOP COP, and FIRE-ESCAPE COP.
HUDSON BAY just sounds like another series from the period that might have been more ambitious story wise to its own benefit, and not tried to compete with the one thing the movies could still do better. It isn’t like American series like TALES OF WELLS FARGO weren’t just as limited visually. Some handled it better than others or had a bit more money or even a larger library of stock footage to draw on.