Thousands of furs, a daring Frenchman, and an enterprising English prince, all came together to give birth to Canada. This is more or less the legend presented in 1941's Hudson's Bay, 20th Century Fox's attempt to turn the formation of the Hudson Bay Company into a swashbuckler. Sadly, the film is bogged to tedium by too many expectations imposed on the story. It's a shame because it has a really terrific cast, with top billing going to Paul Muni as the real life entrepreneur frontiersman, Pierre Esprit Radisson.
Not that you'd know it without the title card because most of the plot puts the fictional Lord Crewe (John Sutton) square in the middle. He functions more like a companion on Doctor Who, someone to follow Radisson and Gooseberry (Laird Cregar) around and ask questions.
He's also there to be the romantic lead opposite a radiant young Gene Tierney who, despite getting second billing, only appears in a couple brief scenes.
She never leaves England and most of the action is in Canada. There, Radisson extols to Crewe the virtues of treating the local Indians as human beings, not just because it's good for business but also because it's the right thing to do. Radisson's attitude is surprising for an American film from 1941. The real life Radisson did work and live among the Native Americans, though he wasn't quite the saint presented in the film. He did treat the Indians like humans, insofar as he was willing to take part in their conflicts and kill if he needed to as much as he might have in Europe. A lot of the dialogue he has in the film is also weirdly skewed towards the creation of a land where people can one day live in peace, clearly pandering to Canadian patriotism. Odd for a story set in 1670 but it makes sense when you consider the real life Hudson Bay Company, which survives to this day, promoted the film in their stores.
Maybe that's why the filmmakers didn't dare give Radisson the romantic subplot though watching Muni romance Tierney would've been far more entertaining.
Cregar as Gooseberry--the real nickname of Radisson's collaborator Medard Chouart de Groseilliers--is a great presence as a gregarious giant. But I mainly tuned in for the royalty.
Vincent Price plays Charles II! It's such weird and yet also such surprisingly perfect casting. More puzzling is Nigel Bruce playing Prince Rupert.
That's the bumbling, good-hearted Dr. Watson from the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. It's hard to look at him and see the Civil War leader, the veteran of the Thirty Years' War, the pirate who fled England for the Caribbean, the co-founder of the Royal Society, and the co-founder of the Royal African Company. Otherwise, though, this film has terrific casting.
Twitter Sonnet #1492
A dozen snacks could never make a meal.
The newer visions beat the lonely old.
Forgotten fires burn behind the wheel.
Repellent beauties urge the arms to hold.
A thoughtful wait recalled a rootless hair.
In solvent times erosion marks the wall.
We carried hoops to play the pensive bear.
Extinction birds deploy the epic stall.
The central point was lost behind the words.
He wrote a country's name in charter ink.
To learn to fly, a cat instructs the birds.
A world of tests has clogged the bloody sink.
Expensive furs have bought the country bay.
Returning coats have paved the ribbon way.
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