Canadian Mountie Rod Webb Series - Films 1 - 5
                              
Trail of the Yukon (1949) – 5.0

 

Kirby Grant stars for the first time as a Canadian Mountie. He was to play one in a bunch of films before he moved over to TV as Sky King. Monogram seemed undecided though about what to call his character. In this one he is Bob McDonald. In the next one he is Rod Webb, then he is Rob McDonald before they finally settle on Rod Webb for the rest of the series. Not that there seems to be any difference in the characters. He is a Mountie. Trusty, brave, kind and he has his dog Chinook. In the other one I saw in the series - Wolf Hunters - Chinook spent the entire film chasing tail - not his own - and was as useful as a gopher at a costume party. This time he earns his pay. He gets water for McDonald, goes for help two times, unties one of the good guys from a tree and snags the bad guy in the end. Before Tonto throws a knife in his back. More about that later.

 

A band of six guys rob the bank of $150,000 and escape into the wilderness - but they quickly turn on each other and a father and son escape with all the cash with the other four go after them. McDonald is out looking for them with Chinook and gets wounded in the leg. The father is killed in a shoot-out and the son captured by the other part of the gang. Chinook saves the son with the untying bit and the son then saves McDonald and they go back to town where the daughter of the local saloon keeper takes a liking to the son. Though the town is a small one and in the middle of nowhere the saloon still manages to have eight can-can dancers. The daughter is the lovely Suzanne Dalbert who I saw recently in the Jungle Jim film Mark of the Gorilla. She came from France for this?



In the film also is one of my favorite character actors Dan Seymour as her father and a good guy for a change. And the voice sounded awfully familiar but until I read the credits I wasn't sure - but Seymour's helper is played by Jay Silverheels. Another six years to the Lone Ranger. For some reason when the dog has the bad guy in his teeth instead of going to arrest him, Silverheels just kills him with a knife toss. Saves on a trial I guess.

The Wolf Hunters (1949) – 5.0




I have previously mourned some vanishing film genres - the white man/woman in the jungle films. the ice skating musicals, the swimming musicals, the kicking mule films - and to a lesser extent the Western, the musical, the big Technicolor adventure films set in exotic locations have kicked the bucket, historical epics too. For the most part they are gone except on celluloid. Here is another one. The Mountie films. To be more proper - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There was a time when a bunch of these were made. There was the Renfrew of the Royal Mounted films - eight of them that ran from 1937 into the 40's, a serial called Dangers of the Royal Mounted in which the bad guys are looking for the treasure of Genghis Khan!, Tyrone Power was one in the 1952 film Pony Solider, if you wanted singing there was Rose Marie with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Dudley-Do-Right was of course a Mountie, there was a TV show Sergeant Preston of the Yukon that ran from 1955 - 1958. And who could forget the 1953 film Canadian Mounties vs Atomic Invaders.

 

And there was this series of ten film that went from 1949 - 1954 based on a series of books by James Curwood. They starred Kirby Grant as Corporal Rod Webb and his white German Shepard Chinook. I can't quite pinpoint the time period but hunting for furs is going on so I guess in the late 1800's. This is the second in the series produced by Monogram and shot in Big Bear Valley, California. It isn't as bad as one might expect. Or as good as you might hope for. It's Monogram for heaven's sake. What could be cheaper than shooting a picture out in the woods where you only need a few ramshackle houses and a canoe. In an isolated fur hunting community someone is killing the hunters and stealing their furs. PETA is among the suspects.

 

They send for a Mountie and square jawed Corporal Webb shows up in a canoe with Chinook. He finds a man who has just been shot while hauling furs to a trading post. Webb takes him back to his home and begins snooping about. Chinook is of absolutely no help as he is romancing another dog whenever he is needed - only at the end to find out that she is married with pups. And then he hightails it as most males would. Even when we have the big fist fight at the end Chinook is not to be seen. Rin-Tin-Tin would have done better. The wife of the Big Boss is played by an attractive Helen Parrish who had once been a promising actress for Universal and had been in a couple of Deanna Durbin's films. She decided to pull the plug on her film career at 26 years old after this. There was no coming back from a low budget Mountie film and nowhere to go. Directed by Budd Boetticher - still credited as Oscar - who must have known there were better things ahead.
Snow Dog (1950) – 5.5

 

Mountie Corporal Rod McDonald (Kirby Grant) returns with his wolf-dog Chinook for another exciting adventure for children and adults! For reasons unknown in this Monogram series the Mountie was named McDonald in two of the earlier films and then Rod Webb for the rest but Chinook is always Chinook. And Chinook is the star of this one. In some of the others he was too busy chasing tail to be of much help. Here he fights off a wolf, points Rod to the clue, saves his life and rips a few bad guys up even killing one. Go Chinook! This is fairly decent for a B film mainly for children. A bunch of murders, Rod gets shot, beaten up and clocked and Chinook makes a few friends.

 

A few men have been found in the White Woods after being killed by a wolf. The Phantom Wolf. Who just happens to look like Chinook. So when Rod shows up to investigate everyone wants to shoot poor Chinook. He tries to explain that he is only half wolf but no one is willing to listen. He has a tussle with the wolf and it is a draw. He does better with men. The doctor in the town who Rod has to visit a few times is played by Milburn Stone. Good practice for him. I come across Milburn in a lot of these low budget B films and am happy that he found steady work on Gunsmoke for 20 years. Needless to say the wolf is innocent for the most part but trained to kill by some dastardly villains looking for mineral rights. 60 minutes and easy to watch.



The Call of the Klondike (1950) – 5.0




Mountie Corporal Rod Webb is after some killers again in the wilderness of the Klondike where men are men and women are scarce. I don't think this poor guy ever gets a promotion in the series. Considering that this is the Klondike it would be nice to see some snow but filming it in California lessened the odds. Webb is about to go on vacation when his boss tells him he needs to go check out the disappearance of two men. How long will it take me to get there? Six days. Just consider it your vacation. Thanks. Oh and you have to take a woman with you. That's six days and six nights. But boss I thought I could have some quality time with Chinook. This girl will just get in the way. Chinook wags his tail.

 

Nancy is going to look for her father. Once they get there - after someone tries to shoot Webb in his canoe - the obvious suspect looks to be Mencheck who could use some lessons in how to be sociable. As soon as Webb goes to his cabin they get into a tussle. Nancy is put up with the fun couple the Mallory's. Mencheck continues to look suspicious but Mr. Mallory is played by Tom Neal and Neal is almost always a bad guy. In films and in life. He had some training as a boxer (and a law degree from Harvard) and in a fight over actress Barbara Payton (Four Sided Triangle) he beat the hell out of Franchot Tone. Later he killed his wife. Chinook of course saves the day by stealing a Lassie move.


Yukon Manhunt (1951) – 5.5




I wonder if back in the day people got excited when they heard another Corporal Webb movie was coming to their theater. Or just went oh no, not another one. Probably neither. These Monogram films were basically fillers with some better than others. Here we are 70 years later and films are $25 bucks for much less and a shitload of commercials. And people on their phones. These Corporal Webb films are ok for what they try to do and this one is better than most of them. Kirby Grant as Webb is fairly stiff but then Mounties are supposed to be. Here it looks like he is finally going to get some honey but of course work intrudes. He always has Chinook.

 

Mining payrolls are being stolen from trains and Webb is put on the case and is on a train when it too is robbed and the transporter killed. Everyone on the train is suspicious and a suspect. Almost like the Yukon Express. Then another murder occurs and Webb is a little slow. As usual. He gets there in the end but it is kind of a long road. Since the payroll has been stolen and has to be on the train you might think he would search everything. He doesn't. Once in the settlement more murders take place. Maybe Ten Little Miners would be more apt. A lot of the film is taken up with him chasing people on foot. A lot of time. But there are two attractive women in the settlement (Gail Davis and Margaret Field) and people getting bumped off. If Webb waits long enough, everyone else but the killer will be dead and he still may have trouble figuring it out.

 

To be fair there are a few surprises here that I didn't see coming but then I am not a Mountie. It is obvious that Chinook is the smart one in the pair but whenever he tries to warn him, Webb he tells him to be quiet. Listen to your damn dog. Directed by Frank McDonald who directed five in this series and loads of Western TV shows - Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Pony Express and Tales of Wells Fargo. When Westerns ruled the TV waves.