The Cariboo Trail (1950)

You won't be disappointed!

i must have seen a different film!!

good back-story, and good acting

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Not without interest. You can see why "Cinecolor" was a Miserable Flop, You can see Gabby Hayes in His Last Movie (actually pretty good), and this Western does have some other Ingredients worth Noting.It is Set in Canada (but does use some awful Studio Stuff for some outdoor Scenes), the Body Count is High, there's a Bitter One-Armed Gunslinger (Bill Williams), a Greasy, Slimy, Bespectacled Villain (Victory Jory), a couple of Tasty Women (Karen Booth, Mary Stuart), and a Mule Named Hannibal.Not one of the Best Randolph Scott Westerns, but it Contains Enough Oddities to make it Worth a Watch for Western Fans. Sometimes Clunky and Awkward but Appealing in an Off-Handed kind of Way.

Turner Classics offered up this Randolph Scott Western a few nights ago and it opened with a fairly extensive explanation on how the picture was restored from it's original Cinecolor filming process. I'd never seen that before, as it looked almost like it was part of the picture appearing right after the opening title. I don't know if it had anything to do with the restoration, but a cattle stampede instigated by Walsh's (Victor Jory) henchmen a little into the movie appeared to take place during night and day both! The story takes place in British Columbia, with displaced Montana cattle man Jim Redfern (Scott) heading out along the Cariboo Trail to find a nice place to settle down and take up ranching. His partner Mike Evans (Bill Williams) would rather prospect for gold, and when he loses an arm in the stampede ambush mentioned earlier, he has a falling out with Redfern. I think the picture could have explained Redfern's action in amputating Evans' arm, say along the lines of it being horribly mangled or prone to gangrene, but the story offered no explanation. Failing that, there was an opportunity for Dr. Rhodes (Charles Hughes) to offer a medical opinion along the same lines, but again, nothing to be said about it.I didn't realize this was George 'Gabby' Hayes' last film role, but I did look it up to see how old he was when he made the movie knowing that most of his work took place in the Thirties and Forties. Turns out he was sixty five, but not looking much older than any of his earlier screen appearances. Still feisty as ever and pretty nimble, I had to wonder why his movie career just stopped right there, though he did host a mid-Fifties TV Western show bearing his name. Gabby had a pretty good line in the story when he described how hungry he was - "My stomach's crowdin' my backbone". I'll have to remember that one.If you're watching this film with a critical eye, there's a good chance you'll be disappointed because some of the elements just don't come together too believably. Captured at one point by Blackfeet Indians, Redfern and his crew are saved by Grizzly's mule Hannibal! There's also the improbable rescue by the town folk of Carson Creek at the finale, engineered by Mike Evans when he has the sudden change of heart regarding his former partner. Still, it's not a terrible send off for one of movie Western's iconic character actors, and another nifty notch in Randolph Scott's belt in mid-career.

I won't bother to summarize the plot, as all of the previous reviewers have done so and there's nothing new I can add. As others have noted, this is not one of Scott's best films, or even one of his better ones. Director Edwin L. Marin has done some good westerns in the past--John Wayne's "Tall in the Saddle" comes to mind--but he doesn't seem to have had his heart in this one. Direction is perfunctory, performances are nothing special--although Bill Wiliams as a bitter one-armed cowboy has some good moments--and the action scenes are routine and not particularly well done. The worst thing about the film, however, is the photography. For some reason producer Nat Holt, who had done many of Scott's previous westerns, saw fit to use the cheap, crappy Cinecolor process for this film instead of the much superior Technicolor or Deluxe or even the chintzy Eastman Color, which would still have come out better than Cinecolor. The colors are muddy, everything is way too dark--even the day shots--actors' faces seem to fade into the background, and the major action setpiece takes place at night and the colors are so dark and muddy that, while the battle is certainly noisy, you can barely see anything.All in all this is a decidedly below-average Scott western. The lousy photography definitely detracts from the film, but it didn't really have anything going for it in the first place.

Randolph Scott had been an actor for quite some time before he finally hit his stride in Westerns in the 1950s. Up until then, he'd been in a wide variety of films and had a successful but especially distinguished career. But, in the 50s, he went on to make some classic Westerns that today are seen as some of the finest examples of the genre. Well, at least SOME of the films he made in the 50s became classics--CARIBOO TRAIL has very little to recommend it, though it is a watchable time-passer.When the film was shown last night on Turner Classic Movies, Robert Osborne proudly announced that TCM had finally been able to locate the original color copy of this film. For years, they had thought that the black & white copy was all that remained. Well, I wasn't that impressed even with the color because the film was badly faded and had a gray appearance. All of the vibrance of the original print was gone and the film just looked rather muddy.As for the script, aside from being set in Canada, it's virtually indistinguishable from dozens and dozens of other Westerns. As usual, Scott and his friends blow into town and find that there's a "boss" (Victor Jory) who cheats and steals with the help of his gang--though it's all cloaked in an aura of respectability. And, in another rather familiar cliché, Scott and his partner have a falling out and only at the end do they come back together to defeat the forces of badness. It's all very, very by the books and even the addition of Gabby Hayes and Lee Tung Foo for support didn't do enough to elevate this film beyond the ordinary.Pedestrian direction, script and too many predictable story elements sink this film and make it a big disappointment for Randolph Scott fans.