Riders of the Northland (1942) User Reviews

From Texas to Alaska in Simi Valley

[boblipton · 6/10 · 20 October 2014]

Charles Starrett wants to join the army to fight tyranny, but the Feds want him and fellow Texas Rangers Russell Hayden and Cliff Edwards to stop spies from stealing cattle in Alaska and running a German submarine (!) station in this lively, exciting and preposterous wartime Northerner.

All the outdoors scenes were shot on the Iverson Ranch in Simi Valley, which had served for outdoor shots for thirty years at this point -- it's hard to say whether this was a convention of film making or an acknowledgment that the audience for these movies were easily fooled. Shirley Patterson is the romantic interest and Cliff Edwards, best known for voicing Jiminy Cricket, offers a couple of songs and some clowning. The movie is fast and fun and the camera work by Benjamin Kline -- who had started by shooting movies for Tom Mix -- is fine.

"Cause this is one war in which every good American has his chance to serve."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 13 November 2015]

It isn't often you run across an otherwise typical B Western that overlaps the World War II era, but that gives the film makers here an opportunity to go for the patriotic gusto in a story about Nazi designs on building a landing strip in Alaska to bring in war supplies. By itself the idea is a bit of a head scratcher but it made for an entertaining story with Charles Starrett teaming up with Russell Hayden and Cliff Edwards in a quick paced adventure story.

As with most of these old time oaters, I keep a sharp eye out for continuity gaffes and this film had it's share. For example, when the Taylor's caught sight of some strangers looting the Kendall ranch house, the bad guys were all mounted on dark colored horses to make their get away. When the Taylor's ran into Steve Bowie (Starrett), Lucky Laidlaw (Hayden) and Harmony Bumpas (Edwards) giving chase, they mistook them for the bad guys, but Steve was riding a white horse and Lucky was on a palomino. The trio shouldn't have had to explain themselves if anyone in the Taylor party was paying attention.

Not long after that, once their identities were established, Steve called Taylor (Kenneth MacDonald) by his own name, even though they hadn't been introduced yet. I guess that could have happened off screen, but the viewer wasn't in on it, so you had to wonder how Steve found out.

Another situation occurred when Steve made his way over to the Larsen ranch to introduce himself and got the cold shoulder from Larsen (Paul Sutton) and his henchmen. When Steve was about to catch a bullet from one of the baddies, Lucky rides to the rescue and shoots the gun out of his hand, but in order to do it, he had to find his mark through the slats of a rail fence. That was pretty good shooting I'd say.

Well if you get too critical about stuff like this it can spoil your enjoyment of the picture. Personally I love catching these inconsistencies, wondering how film makers of an earlier era wouldn't have figured them out for themselves. Maybe they did after the film was in the can, but by then it was too late. No do overs for B matinées on a limited budget.

The coolest part of the story for me was how the movie put patriotism in the forefront with Starrett's character in particular wanting to contribute to the war effort. As Texas Rangers, the trio were ready to ditch their badges to join the military, but quick thinking on the part of their captain put them on this quick mission to Alaska. Everything else about it though resembled your average B Western, complete with shoot outs and horse chases, with the good guys making the save in time for the next bill of a double feature.