NORTHWEST TRAIL. Action Pictures/Lippert, 1945. Bob Steele, Joan Woodbury, John Litel, John Hamilton, Raymond Hatton, Madge Bellamy, George Meeker. Cinecolor. Based on a story James Oliver Curwood. Director: Derwin Abrahams.

   As a word of caution first, several online websites that discuss this movie suggest that the connection to James Olive Curwood was totally imaginary. The DVD was also sold to me in a box set of western films, but since the setting is contemporary Canada (circa 1945), with both automobiles and airplanes not only visible but part of the plot, I’m going to call it an action adventure movie instead.

   Bob Steele, of course, was indeed a long-time B-western movie star, but in Northwest Trail he plays a Royal Canadian Mountain Policeman instead. It was toward the end of Steele’s career as far as leading roles was concerned, but the career continued on to 1973 in secondary roles. He’s probably most famous for his role as Trooper Duffy in TV’s F-Troop, but not to me, as the series, a comedy taking place in the Old West, never appealed to me.

   Playing opposite him in Northwest Trail is Joan Woodbury as Kate Owens, the daughter of a man to whom she’s bringing $20,000 in cash to help him meet his payroll far up in the Canadian wilderness. Their first encounter does not go well, which means of course they will eventually find themselves falling in love with each other.

   But I’m getting ahead of myself. The movie begins with mounted officer Matt O’Brien (Bob Steele) coming across the young lady as she’s sleeping in the middle of nowhere in a car with a carburetor that’s being balky at the high altitude. The young lady is greatly amused. The officer is stolid and inwardly grimacing as he tries to help her:

    “Say, tell me, is this ‘always gets his man’ stuff true, or just a lot of movie hokum?” she asks. “That happens to be the motto of the service,” he replies stiffly. “Oh, how noble. Well, where’s your man, or didn’t you get him yet?” Zing, zing, zing. See for yourself. It’s a scene that’s well worth the price of admission.

   My apologies for the smallness of Joan Woodward’s photo (and it’s not even from this movie) and the blurry image of the scene to the right. (Bob Steele’s being ordered back to his RCMP base by John Litel after he’s successfully reunited the lady with her father, played by Neil Hamilton of Superman fame.)

   I haven’t the skills to improve this second image. Maybe it can’t be done.

   But getting back to the story, it’s full of action, beginning with a robbery after O’Brien is assigned the task of escorting the young lady on the final stage of her journey, on horseback, since cars are no longer up to the task.

   Not all of the action makes a lot of sense, but there is plenty of shooting, chasing, and sneaking up on, plus an abundance of other suspicious activity.

   I referred earlier to Tim McCoy’s rather stiff way of riding in the saddle. You could hardly ask for more animation in a rider than Bob Steele, elbows flying, his horse fairly leaping along.

   Remarkably enough, Joan Woodbury is also an excellent rider, and overall, with sparks continually flying, she brings far more life to the story than the rather dour Mr. Steele does.

   What her character sees in him is another matter altogether, especially when all is said and done. That includes an ending I didn’t believe even as I was watching it – the solution being built out of the sheerest of gossamer fabric – and the clinch that occurs afterward seems as unlikely as the proverbial snowball.