The story concerns a little girl, Susannah (Temple), who is the lone survivor of an attack on her wagon train by Native Americans. Taken in by the Canadian Mounties and cared for, she gets to know other Natives and befriends a young boy, Little Chief (Martin Good Rider). Eventually, she must use her knowledge of the indigenous ways she has learned from Little Chief to help her friend and protector, Monty (Randolph Scott). Along the way, the movie also manages to work in Margaret Lockwood as a love interest for Monty, as Lockwood's star was suddenly on the rise with The Lady Vanishes (1938) being such a big hit.
One of the interesting things about the movie is that in some of the roles, actual members of the Blackfoot tribe were used and one of them was Martin Good Rider, the boy who played Little Chief. Alas, most of the Native speaking roles were filled by white actors in red face, and like many movies of the period depicting Native Americans, the portrayals are often caricatures and certainly insensitive. Still, for its time, it's somewhat amazing that the movie portrays sincere friendship and trust between the two groups in regards to Temple's relationship with them.
Another interesting thing is that Temple and Rider became actual friends during the production. During Temple's child stardom years in Hollywood, she was, like so many other child stars, highly restricted in what she could do on and off the set. So restricted, in fact, that her guardians (and the studio too!) did not want her socializing with other child actors on the set. The thinking was that Temple might lose her focus or, in the worst-case scenario, she and her new friend might start making trouble together or become bored with the production process and just want to play. But by Susannah of the Mounties, it was a little different. Temple was 11 years old and an old hand at making movies. No longer the little five-year-old in need of constant direction and discipline, she was given a little more freedom.
By the end of the production, she and Martin took their friendship a notch higher with Temple making the members of the Blackfoot tribe on the set, honorary members of her Shirley Temple Police Force while she, in turn, was made an honorary member of the Blackfoot tribe and given the tribal name, Bright Shining Star.
Shirley Temple's star faded, it's true, but slowly. She continued on in the movies for a few more years and worked with ever bigger stars, like Claudette Colbert in Since You Went Away (1944) and Cary Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), but her mega-stardom was over. After her great one-two punch with Randolph Scott, the pair never worked together again and Scott became one the most successful Western actors in Hollywood. Temple formally retired in 1950 after a series of minor successes coupled with too many box-office flops. Susannah of the Mounties would be Temple's last great lead role and her last great hit, cementing her reputation as an icon of the '30s.
Director: William A. Seiter, Walter Lang Producers: Kenneth Macgowan, Darryl F. Zanuck Writing: Robert Ellis, Helen Logan (screen play) Fidel LaBarba and Walter Ferris (story) Music: R.H. Bassett, David Buttolph, Charles Maxwell Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller Editing: Robert Bischoff Art Direction: Richard Day, Albert Hogsett Set Decoration: Thomas Little Costume Design: Gwen Wakeling Cast: Shirley Temple (Susannah Sheldon), Randolph Scott (Monty - Inspector Angus Montague), Margaret Lockwood (Vicky Standing), Martin Good Rider (Little Chief), J. Farrell MacDonald (Pat O'Hannegan), Maurice Moscovitch (Chief Big Eagle), Moroni Olsen (Supt. Andrew Standing), Victor Jory (Wolf Pelt), Lester Matthews (Harlan Chambers), Leyland Hodgson (Randall)
By Greg Ferrara
