So much average

Best movie ever!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I just watched this movie for the first time. Coop made the Westerner for William Wyler, who had the script totally rewritten to accommodate Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean and Gary Cooper as Cole Harden. It was made the same year as this one, 1940. De Mille was a failed playwright who became something like a business partner to some very important nickelodeon owners in New York. They let him come west in 1913 and make the first film in Hollywood: The Squaw Man. De Mille was pretty much incompetent, but his films were nevertheless, often successful. The Westerner is arguably one of the funniest westerns ever made. Coop and Brennan were superb because the film was set up for them. De Mille tried to cut Northwest Mounted's script for Cooper, but Coop's lines didn't always fit in the square peg mounted police spectacle. That left Coop squirming to get the right grimace, wince or gulp, when the script just couldn't make room for it. The movie was close to good, but not quite. I just saw it on a downloaded DVD. I spotted Iron Eyes Cody as a young Indian in the cast, but note that he is not included in the IMDb cast. Perhaps someone wants to rectify that.

De Mille just simply knew how to make films. Period. It's totally amazing that he is still the champ of all time.A lot of all star casts flounder with weaker directors and scripts, but de Mille is epic.This is story telling. The story here is based around Riel and the Mounted Police of Canada. We even begin with Riel, but soon the wing of the film takes the turn towards the big name stars.The scenes with the two minor love interest characters are the most stunning. You know there will be a tragic end, but you aren't sure what the tragedy will be. Always the expert, de Mille knew that had he staged these scenes with the leading love triangle, we would not have the suspense. We would know they would turn out okay. Masterfully, he arrays them in a position of caring about the wild young beautiful couple, and their beauty is cinematic greatness, perfectly filmed and choreographed. Paulette Goddard, from her very entrance, is breath taking, and her beauty is perfectly enveloped with de Mille's cameras. Incredible, astounding, and unsurpassed to this day.The spectacle of de Mille has never been surpassed, and neither has his directing of characters. As in UNION PACIFIC, it is the minor characters such as Overman and Tamiroff who take this up to the top notch. The comic relief here is one that we also see leading up to a Shakespearean style duel.The characters and the story keep you riveted. This is a long movie, but it seems like it takes only a few minutes. The mixture of spectacle, action, comic relief, characters, suspense, romance, adventure, and perfect cinematography is the sought after recipe that wise directors will copy and jealous directors will foolishly ignore.And the moron who put this on the 50 worst films of all time list, we have to wonder what hallucinogens he was on. This is one of the 50 best films of all time. THIS is a clinic. THIS is how to make a film.

Gary Cooper (white), George Bancroft (black), and Akim Tamiroff (brown) characters are id'd as good, bad, and well-intentioned by the colors of the hats they wear.Paulette Goddard's scene hiring the Indian Hit Man is straight from the silents.Lynne Overman's burr is the lineal ancestor of James Doohan's.People still revere De Mille?

Cecil B. DeMille, once again, brings a Technicolor epic to the screen. This time it concerns the Royal Canadian Mounties (Red Coats) a Texas Ranger, in search of a criminal dealing with the Indians in frontier Canada, during the eighteen-eighties, by selling them guns, and the half-breeds that are being controlled by the Mounties.Along the way the Texas Ranger(Gary Cooper)falls for a pretty Army nurse (Madelaine Carroll) who is also courted by a Mountie Officer (Preston Foster). The nurse's brother, also a Mountie (Robert Preston) is under the spell of a beautiful half-breed (Paulette Goddard) who's father is the criminal (George Bancroft) that is being sought.As in DeMille plots, the hero saves the day, but not without a sacrifice of some of the supporting players. Won't tell you who. See the picture.Coop and Carroll do a wonderful job, taking some pretty silly lines, even for the forties, and making them work. Both look their best at the peaks of their careers. Preston and Foster (Robert and Preston, that is) do admirable jobs. Robert Preston looking very young with a full head of blonde curly hair. Playing the tempestuous half-breed, Paulette Goddard got a big break in her career with this role. It is said she wanted the part so bad, she donned herself in dark skin make-up, put on an Indian get-up with feathers and walked into DeMille's office saying, "You teenk you wan beeg director, hah? Me, Louvette, show you!" She got the part and played it to the hilt with her dark skin and beautiful blue eyes, beating out Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth also up for the role. Goddard went on to play in two more DeMille pictures, REAP THE WILD WIND and UNCONQUERED, this time performing leading roles.There is an excellent supporting cast of character actors, namely; Lynne Overman, Akim Tamiroff, Walter Hampden, Lon Chaney, Jr, Robert Ryan and Rod Cameron who went on to star in Republic Pictures westerns.POLICE is not yet on video, although most other DeMille films are, but it can be seen once in a while on AMC Classic Movies on TV.Great DeMille entertainment.