Northwest Passage Blu-ray Review

King Vidor’s Northwest Passage is unquestionably an exhilarating and engaging adventure film of the old school.

The Production: 4.5/5

Part action-adventure tale, part coming-of-age story, King Vidor’s Northwest Passage offers the first part of the novel by Kenneth Roberts in one of Hollywood’s most memorable picaresque tales of the Golden Age. With Spencer Tracy and Robert Young leading a band of very talented character actors, gorgeous locations (Idaho passing for upper New York state and Canada), and action aplenty, Northwest Passage might not actually get to the search for that elusive waterway to the Pacific, but the journey to its commencement is still one worth taking.

Expelled from Harvard in 1759 and expressing his desire to become a painter (a profession looked down on as guttural) rather than a clergyman, Langdon Towne (Robert Young) finds himself further humiliated when he has to flee from his home in Portsmouth when his drunken slurs against nobleman Wiseman Clagett (Montagu Love) make him persona non grata. Awakening the next morning with fellow drunken friend Hunk Marriner (Walter Brennan), Towne finds himself an unwitting part of Rogers’ Rangers, a 160-man strong unit led by the renowned major of the regiment Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy). Rogers keeps Towne in the regiment to draw the detailed maps he needs to trek through the wilderness in order to find and attack a Canadian Indian tribe, the Abenakis, at St. Francis who have been marauding unarmed settlers in upper New York. After accomplishing their mission, they are to meet up with domestic forces one hundred miles south at Fort Wentworth, but along the way will be many dangers, both natural and man-made, to pose unending problems for the Rangers.

Screenwriters Laurence Stallings and Talbot Jennings have done a good job establishing the period in America when there was cooperation between provincials and the British in their shared desire to fight the French and various Indian tribes loyal to the French who are making life dangerous for New Englanders. In just a few scenes, we also get a good sense of Langdon Towne’s innocence and lack of purpose (qualities that will be altered with difficulty through the film’s running time) and are thus launched into the heart of the film: the impossibly treacherous trek to and from St. Francis on the Rangers’ highly lethal mission where they must face hostile French and Indian enemies, hazardous terrain including mosquito-infested swamps and raging rivers, and eventual starvation since one musket shot at a rabbit will alert unfriendly forces lying in wait to their location. Director King Vidor offers plenty of Technicolor eye candy and some amazing man-made feats: watching the regiment carry heavy boats up and down a craggy hill and then later form a human chain to span the expanse of the mighty St. Lawrence River, two of the film’s most action-filled centerpieces. Of course, the dawn attack on the St. Francis Indian village is expectedly filled with death and destruction, but the subsequent trek back to safety with the regiment’s numbers dwindling on a daily basis is likewise memorable. There really isn’t a moment in the film when something exciting, touching, or frightening isn’t happening.

Spencer Tracy is well cast as the resolute Robert Rogers. He’s both a sturdy leader but also a pal and confidante to his men knowing them by name and offering friendly comments and advice on their travels. He’s also realistic enough to accept his men’s injuries along the way as the likely death sentences they are without overt sentimentality. He’s given a couple of terrific monologues during the narrative that allow the two-time Oscar winner the chance to show his forthrightness as well as his humanity. Robert Young grows appreciably during his character’s travails throughout the story, this being one of his more notable screen performances. Walter Brennan with his motley dentures gets to steal all of his scenes without his usual orneriness while the very young Regis Toomey as the tragic Webster gets a memorable moment in the swamp when a game leg seals his fate. Other notable soldiers include the touchy Sgt. McNott of Donald McBride and the vengeful insanity of Addison Richards’ Lieutenant Crofton. Ruth Hussey doesn’t get a lot of screen time at the start or at the end as Langton’s love interest, but she looks lovely in Technicolor. Quick little vignettes are offered by Rand Brooks as Langton’s younger brother, Verna Felton as Langton’s mother, and Frederick Worlock as another Portsmouth nobleman who looks down on Langton’s drunken escapades.

Video: 5/5

3D Rating: NA

The film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 is faithfully realized in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The Technicolor is lush and gorgeous throughout with the sharpness and clarity of the image never in doubt and never interrupted by any visual artifacts. The movie has been divided into 28 chapters.

Audio: 5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio track is rich and solid for its era. Dialogue has been superbly recorded and has been mixed with Herbert Stothart’s stirring background score and the various sound effects to excellent effect. There are no problems at all with aural anomalies like hiss, flutter, pops, and crackle.

Special Features: 2/5

Northward, Ho! (9:25, SD): 1940 behind-the-scenes featurette detailing the work that goes into producing a mammoth production like Northwest Passage on location in Idaho.

Theatrical Trailer (2:01, SD)

Overall: 4.5/5

Though only the first half of Kenneth Roberts’ book (the second half was never made; possibly the uneasy working relationship between Spencer Tracy and King Vidor which allegedly brought in Jack Conway to direct part of the film was to blame), Northwest Passage is nevertheless an exhilarating and engaging adventure film of the old school. The Warner Archive Blu-ray release is a joy to behold and comes with a firm recommendation!

Northwest Passage [Blu-ray]

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