Canadian Pacific
Directed by Edwin L. Marin
A railroad surveyor faces an Indian rebellion.
1949 1h 35m Western TV-G
Expires: Invalid date
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In the late 1880's, the development of the Canadian Pacific Railroad is halted by the enormous challenge of finding a route through the Rocky Mountains. At a meeting of the Canadian Parliament, Canadian Pacific general manager William Van Horne reports that surveyor Tom Andrews is in the field attempting to map a route through the mountains. While doing his work, however, Tom is shot at by a fur trader, Dirk Rourke, and his accomplice Cagle. When Tom returns to the railroad construction camp to report to Van Horne, he spots Cagle working there and attacks him. However, Dr. Edith Cabot intervenes and makes Tom aware of her pacifist philosphy, which does not impress him. After he delivers his proposal to Van Horne, Tom heads for Calgary, where his girl friend, Cecille Gautier, is waiting for him on her family's ranch. Rourke has been attempting to court Cecille but she has rejected him. Tom and Cecille's father attend a meeting at Rourke's trading post, where Rourke campaigns against the railroad, saying that it will mean the end of trade in the area. When Tom tries to convince the trappers and farmers that the railroad will bring them many benefits and that Rourke is against it because it will end his business monopoly, he and Rourke become involved in a fistfight, which is broken up by Père Lacombe, whom Cecille has sent. Tom decides to return to the railroad to help to keep peace, prompting Cecille to break their engagement. At the camp, explosives expert Dynamite Dawson tel...
Canadian Pacific marked Nat Holt's debut as an independent producer after many years at RKO and was the first of three films he made for release by Twentieth Century-Fox in the late 1940s. All starred Randolph Scott and featured Victor Jory. (For information on the other two, please see entries below for Fighting Man of the Plains and The Cariboo Trail.) A October 3, 1948 New York Times article described Holt's negotiations with the Canadian Pacific Railroad's board of directors and with agencies of the Canadian government: "Months of negotiations were required to work out details of customs, immigration, currency exchange and the like connected with the location work in Canada-so much so that the Canadian Government asked that a formal record be made of every step as a model for future projects....The CPR furnished construction gangs who doubled as actors to set up a stretch of dummy track beside the main line; and an authentic old-time construction train..."
A press release from Nat Holt Productions contains the following production information: The film was shot in Banff, Lake Louise, Kicking Horse Pass, the Yoho Valley and on the Morley Indian Reserve near Calgary. Holt employed Indians from the Yiskabee, or Stony tribe, related to the the Sioux tribe, to portray their forefathers. A November 1948 American Cinematographer article reported that Canadian Pacific was the first Cinecolor film to use a post-exposure "flashing" technique which enabled interior scenes to be shot with less light. Although actress Nancy Olson had just been put under contract by Paramount, she made her motion picture debut, on loan-out, in Canadian Pacific. In the film's onscreen cast list, the character portrayed by Robert Barrat is called "Cornelius Van Horne," but in the film he is referred to as "William Van Horne."
