The Scarlet Horsemen

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Movie
German title The Scarlet Horsemen
Original title North West Mounted Police
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1940
length 126 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Cecil B. DeMille
script Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
Alan Le May
C. Gardner Sullivan
production Cecil B. DeMille
William LeBaron
William H. Pine
music Victor Young
camera W. Howard Greene
Victor Milner
cut Anne Bauchens
occupation

The Scarlet Horseman is an American western directed by Cecil B. DeMille from 1940 and starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll .

action

Northwest Canada in 1885. The whiskey dealer Jacques Corbeau calls on the teacher Louis Riel to rebel against white settlers supported by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police . Corbeau's daughter Louvette has an affair with Constable Ronnie Logan at the fort, while Logan's sister April, a nurse, has fallen in love with Sergeant Jim Brett. Dusty Rivers, a Texas Ranger , shows up in this situation. Tension develops between him and Jim. Dusty wants to arrest Corbeau because he is wanted as a murderer in Texas.

When French Canadians steal a Gatling machine gun, the two men forget their problems. Dusty accompanies April to Batoche, the rebel stronghold, while Jim rides into a nearby Indian camp to prevent Corbeau from inciting the Indians to fight. In Batoche, Dusty is sent to the Indian camp by Riel and held there. Chief Big Bear wants to help Corbeau against the Anglo-Canadians when he receives uniforms of killed red coats within three days. In the meantime, Ronnie and his comrade Jerry Moore are on guard near Duck Lake.

April is told that the rioters are planning a massacre at Duck Lake. She asks Louvette to ride up to Ronnie and warn him. But instead Louvette gets Ronnie to leave his post and spend the time with her until the planned robbery ends. Jim and Dusty survive the fight. Dusty is supposed to accompany April and the wounded to a river. Jim himself wants to bring the Indians to reason with his remaining six men. Jim arrives at the camp the moment Corbeau raves about the successful attack. Jim can arrest Corbeau. Meanwhile, Dusty can destroy the stolen machine gun. Then he finds the inconsolable Ronnie in Louvette's tent and tells him to pose as a deserter. Louvette bribes an Indian who is supposed to kill Dusty, whom she describes to the Indian as a "white man on a horse". Instead of Dusty, however, Ronnie gets on the horse and is killed by the Indian. Dusty brings Ronnie's corpse to the fort and can pass the destruction of the machine gun as Ronnie's merit. Then he takes Corbeau to ride to Texas, Jim and April say goodbye to Dusty.

background

The screenplay by Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Alan Le May and C. Gardner Sullivan was based on the novel The Royal Canadian Mounted Police by RC Fetherstonhaugh.

It was the first color film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper . They both worked together on Hero of the Prairie . For Gary Cooper it was the second western role in a year after The Westerner . Originally, Joel McCrea was slated to play the lead. Robert Ryan and Rod Cameron played small supporting roles.

Paramount brought the film to the German cinemas in 1951. In this dubbed version, which is still in use today, Gary Cooper got the voice of Peter Pasetti .

Reviews

"Elaborate and chatty Western with all the characteristics of a bad DeMille production."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

literature

  • Robert Collier Fetherstonhaugh: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police . Garden City, New York 1940, 294 (XII) pp.
  • Joe Hembus : The Western Lexicon - Extended new edition by Benjamin Hembus - 1567 films from 1894 to today . Heyne Film Library No. 32/207, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag Munich, original edition 1995, ISBN 3-453-08121-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Scarlet Horsemen. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used