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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The major difference between "Northerns" and "Westerns" isn't much, just exactly which way the weather vane turns. "Northerns" are North of the United States border in the wilds of Canada, particularly the views of the snow-capped mountains, beautiful footage, and the marching of the Mounties. This beautifully filmed Technicolor action/adventure is a treat to look at, filled with the blues of the skies and rivers, greens of the grass, and assorted other colors of the leaves of the many trees. It's all about a gold robbery and the Mountie chase of the villains. When the wrong man is arrested for the crime, the mounties must hurry before the angered locals go out of their way to lynch him. He happens to be the heroine's father, and she is in love with the Mountie who is on the villain's trail.The adorable Janet Chapman is surprisingly amusing as the mascot of the mounties, an orphan who wears the Mountie uniform with pride yet sadly witnesses the murder of her own father by the crooks. She's protected by an extremely smart husky, the type of pooch you'd like protecting you if you were in the middle of nowhere. Exciting chase sequences and the explosion of a rock-covered waterfall where the heroes (Dick Foran and Allen Jenkins) fight not only the bad guys but the elements as well. One of the rare color films of the late 1930's (especially one not being a musical), it is a treasure of God's green earth that seems to be slowly disappearing.

On the plus side, this movie comes with breathtaking photography, so delicately colored that this picture is always most attractive to look at. The backgrounds certainly have the appearance of actual locations, but as this movie is not listed in "Canadian Feature Films", the picture was obviously made closer to home.Unfortunately, "Heart of the North" is not nearly so attractive to listen to. The dialogue is hackneyed and the plot no more than fairly exciting, but the action spots are staged with reasonable vigor and even panache — despite obvious special effects work and the use of doubles on one or two occasions.Dick Foran comes over adequately enough as the hero, (and we're glad to say he sings a snatch of a song too). If you can accept the Hollywood convention that has every sympathetic character looking so sparklingly clean, neatly groomed and beautifully made up, despite living in a shanty town amongst the likes of Harry Cording, then the heroine (Gloria Dickson) and the hero's pals (Patric Knowles, Allen Jenkins and Arthur Gardner) are reasonably adequate too. Fortunately, James Stephenson rates a cut above this lot as the easily-swayed Inspector Gore, whilst Gale Page seems even more convincing as the villainous Elizabeth Spaulding. Russell Simpson gives his usual rough-and ready interpretation of the heroine's pa, while Garry Owen takes out the movie's acting honors as the demented Tommy. The villains, led by Joe Sawyer and Joseph King, notch up as sufficiently pleasing.Unfortunately, the producer didn't let well enough alone, but saddled the cast with young Janet Chapman. The whiny-voiced Miss Chapman inflicts a real pain in the neck. And would you believe it, there's also a dog. True, these misfits disappear from the action for quite long stretches. And we must admit the close-ups of the mutt are appealingly photographed.The music score has that vigorous Warner Brothers' ring to it. While the film editor often seems to be bending over backwards to cut in all the many and various camera set-ups that director Seiler shot, production credits are agreeably polished. "Heart of the North" encompasses all the gloss we might expect of a top-budget Warner "A" production.