In this outdoor love story, similar to "Penny Serenade" in its narrative, tough Canadian Mountie Dick Powell (who doesn't break into a Nelson Eddy/Howard Keel "Rose Marie" type song here) falls in love with Bostonian Evelyn Keyes (in a marvelous performance, her best) and introduces her to the Canadian wilderness. She valiantly faces each challenge ahead of her, but when it comes time to start a family, she has a difficult time accepting this snowy climate for bringing up a child. There are moments of humor and tragedy, just like Cary Grant and Irene Dunne faced in "Penny Serenade", and ultimately triumph.
A cast of unknowns support the two (ironically cast together three years after Keyes played a fictionalized version of Powell's old musical partner Ruby Keeler in "Jolson Sings Again"), and it is the fact that they are all obscure character performers that make their performances all the more natural, particularly Frances Morris and John Miljan as the Howards, the couple who host Powell and Keyes after their first long journey together into the Canadian outback. Jean Inness is also memorable as the female hermit who takes Keyes in to have her baby. Breathtaking outdoor scenery doesn't hurt as well as a pretty musical score. There's a very funny scene where Keyes must show a group of Native Americans that its OK to get a small pox vaccination, as well as the touching interaction between Mrs. Mike and Mrs. Howard.
I saw this movie first as a naive college student back on the late show in Los Angeles before the explosion of cable television, and some 20 years later, I am still touched by it, particularly by the aspect of city slicker Keyes finding a greater wisdom in God's big universe.
A cast of unknowns support the two (ironically cast together three years after Keyes played a fictionalized version of Powell's old musical partner Ruby Keeler in "Jolson Sings Again"), and it is the fact that they are all obscure character performers that make their performances all the more natural, particularly Frances Morris and John Miljan as the Howards, the couple who host Powell and Keyes after their first long journey together into the Canadian outback. Jean Inness is also memorable as the female hermit who takes Keyes in to have her baby. Breathtaking outdoor scenery doesn't hurt as well as a pretty musical score. There's a very funny scene where Keyes must show a group of Native Americans that its OK to get a small pox vaccination, as well as the touching interaction between Mrs. Mike and Mrs. Howard.
I saw this movie first as a naive college student back on the late show in Los Angeles before the explosion of cable television, and some 20 years later, I am still touched by it, particularly by the aspect of city slicker Keyes finding a greater wisdom in God's big universe.