North of the Yukon(1939)

First Journey, Fort William(en)

Set in 1815, this is the dramatic story of a child of the fur trade, son of a Native mother and a Scottish-Canadian fur trader. John Mackenzie's father is a wintering partner of the Montréal-based North West Company, which was for decades the wealthiest merchant enterprise in North America. To mark his entry into adulthood, twelve-year-old John is travelling for the first time to Fort William, the Company's lavish winter headquarters by Lake Superior. In following his journey, the film reveals the complex network of people--Scottish, French and Native Canadian--that made up fur-trading society and gave a unique flavor to the opening up of Canada's northwest.

Canada Vignettes: December Lights(en)

Animated film of a traditional Franco-Manitoban tale that resembles the story of the first Christmas.

Mistress Madeleine(en)

Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.

The Desperado(en)

The Desperado

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(en)

In late 1890s Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever and talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead-shot Sundance Kid. As the west rapidly becomes civilized, the law finally catches up to Butch, Sundance and their gang. Chased doggedly by a special posse, the two decide to make their way to South America in hopes of evading their pursuers once and for all.

Revenge(en)

Easterner Alva Leigh arrives in the mining town of Magnet just after her fiancé, Donald Jaffray, has been murdered. Because Alva has sworn vengeance, "Sudden" Duncan, the real murderer, accuses Donald's partner, Dick Randall, of the crime. Knowing that Dick is planning a journey across the desert, Duncan fills his canteen with poison, but Alva, who also is determined to kill Dick, drills a hole in the canteen so that the water will drain out. After Dick's departure, Alva learns from "Tiger Lil'," who is jealous of Duncan's attention to the Eastern newcomer, that it was Duncan who killed Donald. Frantic, Alva immediately mounts a horse and rides into the desert to save the man she now recognizes as her true love. Tiger Lil' shoots Duncan in a dance hall quarrel, and Alva marries Dick.

The Enchanted Hill(en)

Based on a Peter B. Kyne novel, The Enchanted Hill featureds a triangle romance between Jack Holt, rancher's daughter Mary Brian and jealous foreman Richard Arlen.

Burning the Wind(en)

Two ranchers get together to fight a common enemy and fall in love.

Cheyenne Rides Again(en)

A lawman poses as an outlaw, steals $10,000 from a cattle thief, then promises to return the money if he can join the gang--while finding a way to expose them.

El Diablo Rides(en)

Bob rides into a border town where he runs into trouble with Lambert and his gang. Herb arrests him claiming he is the outlaw El Diablo. But it was just to save him from Lambert's gang and the two now plan to trap the outlaws.

Riders of the Law(en)

Jack Meadows and sidekick Toby are looking for whiskey smugglers along the Canadian border. They find a badly wounded Seriff who earlier caught one of them and a nearby hoofprint of a horse with a broken shoe. Setting up a blacksmith shop, they soon find the owner of that horse and replace the shoe with another that will let them trace him.

The Better Man Wins(en)

Nell refuses Bill's aid when her rancher father can no longer work, but when her father dies, she turns to Bill for help.

Entre o Amor e o Cangaço(pt)

Western Knights(en)

Western Slapstick. A good chance to see Al St. John moving into the western comedy sidekick that would be his bread and butter role for the next twenty years. Also, it's a rare screen opportunity for Addie McPhail, Roscoe Arbuckle's wife and therefore Al's aunt.

Romance Road(en)

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant must mediate a land rights dispute between an advancing railroad construction gang and French Canadian trappers in the rugged Northwest Territory of Canada.

Raton Pass(en)

Raton Pass is a curious western based on the rules of Community Property. Dennis Morgan and Patricia Neal portray a recently married husband and wife, each of whom owns half of a huge cattle ranch. Neal is a tad more ambitious than her husband, and with the help of a little legal chicanery she tries to obtain Morgan's half of the spread. He balks, so she hires a few gunslingers to press the issue. In a 1951 western, the greedy party usually came to a sorry end; Raton Pass adheres strictly to tradition.

Pistol Harvest(en)

Two men are accused of killing their boss. They are saved from the hangman's noose when two other guys are arrested, but Holt feels as though justice is still not being served. On their own, they set about to track down the genuine killer.

Caught(en)

Calamity Jane is a tough and rowdy woman in the old West who owns a saloon and gambling joint (and runs a cattle rustling operation as a sideline). One day she hires a pretty but naive young woman to work as a saloon girl, and finds that the girl is bringing out the maternal instincts she never knew she had. Those instincts are put to the test when a US army cavalry troop arrives to clean up the town and the girl and the young lieutenant in charge of the troop fall in love, and Calamity Jane may know something about the lieutenant that the girl doesn't.

Popalong Popeye(en)

Popeye is hosting three of his western-obsessed nephews on his ranch. To get them to eat their spinach, he tells about how he arrived at the ranch and was humiliated by foreman Bluto until, of course, he ate his spinach.

Stage Hoax(en)

Weary Woody Woodpecker is hitchhiking across the desert trying to thumb a ride on a passing stagecoach. He adds artificial limbs and dresses like a girl and has no problem in getting on the next one but is tossed out when his disguise is discovered. After eating a huge meal he decides to get even with the driver and uses a poster of the wanted Buzz Buzzard as a tool. But the real Buzz shows up and, when Woody resorts to his female disguise, the dastardly villain makes a play for him.