The Cariboo Trail (1950)

THE CARIBOO TRAIL (1950)

By Ralph Santini - ***

                The Cariboo Trail is one the several independent productions that Randolph Scott was concentrating on at the time and this one is his seventh western filmed in Cinecolor. This process was apparently adapated in the B-film industry because it attracted many smaller companies and independent producers as well. According to the definition on Wikipedia it was “an early subtractive color-model two color motion picture process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M. Gundelfinger, and its various formats were in use from 1932 to 1955.” It also denotes that “A bi-pack color process, the photographer loaded a standard camera with two film stocks, an orthochromatic strip dyed red, plus a panchromatic strip behind it. The ortho film stock recorded only blue and green, while its red filtration passed red light to the panchromatic film stock. In the laboratory, the negatives were processed on duplitized film and each emulsion was toned red or cyan. While Cinecolor could produce vibrant reds, oranges, blues, browns and flesh tones, its renderings of other colors such as bright greens (rendered dark green) and purples (rendered a sort of dark magenta) were muted.”

                Now before I get to tell you about this movie this is one of my own methods for criticisms, they are usually more story rather than process related, and I don’t think this film is an exception. Many Cinecolor films do not seem to be very much valued mainly because of the format but that might not prevent me from recommending the movie if it goes for good writing. And this movie I think is one of the best westerns ever filmed in Cinecolor, mainly because of the effective storyline. It concerns two cattlemen (Randolph Scott and Bill Williams from TV’s Kit Carson) who with the help of their Asian sidekick (Lee Tung Foo) dream of having cattle of their own by attempting to settle at The Cariboo Trail in British Columbia. Suddenly they learn about a savage Gold Rush going on and they are joined by an old prospector (George “Gabby” Hayes which was his final cinematic role) with plenty of bad luck in his life. The bad news is that a ruthless grafter (Victory Jory, whom you might remember as the merciless Northern overseer from Gone with the Wind) will stop at nothing to ruin our heroes’ dreams. Jory orders his men to stampede their cattle leading to Williams’ arm loss and thus becoming a cold, selfish anti-hero. He begins to hate Scott blaming him for what happened and goes around with his sleazy conduct with many other people around him. So Scott all alone with no help from his embittered friend will have to handle many sacrifices and many difficult ones since Jory owns the town he arrived. So Scott goes on and on until finding gold with the help of his two sidekcicks Foo and “Gabby” Hayes.

                I know what you are thinking, this western is far from a masterpiece but as I said before it has a pretty decent story for this traditional western. I like how the film focuses on Randolp Scott’s sacrificing adventure with his searching for gold and buying back his friend Bill Williams after losing his arm. Williams does an effective job on playing a rare anti-hero role for this traditional oater and I think he steals every scene he appears. I have never seen such effective character development and I find that more or less exceptional. I also this is one of Victor Jory’s less exaggerated villain roles because here he manages to portray a more suave one rather than just a bloodthirsty cutthroat more or less like in 1939’s Dodge City even though he is just one the hitmen hired by Bruce Cabot in that film. I mean he is more dressed like a gentleman unlike his many other westerns which he plays a villain. Sure there are some clichés added in the film, including a fist fight between Randolph Scott and a more invinicible villain played Jim Davis and it only lasts a couple of minutes until Davis is killed, losing the battle but what really matters in the film is the story about Randolph Scott fighting for his reconciliation Bill Williams after being amputated resulting from the stampeding.

                The Cariboo Trail is basically one of those westerns to see as escapist entertainment not necessarily a work of art like some others. I’ve seen some other Cinecolor westerns, but none of them seem to match the careful premise of this one. I think you should give it a second look if you don’t seem to care about it. On the other hand, to each his own but I personally find it worth seeing for Randolph Scott fans and those like watching westerns a lot and those who might want to be good experts on Cinecolor’s history.