Roberts' novel is split into two parts, referred to as "Book 1" and "Book 2". The film, which is based entirely on Book 1, makes significant changes in the story (including a “happy ending”) that so displeased Roberts that he vowed not to sell film rights to any more of his books. There was originally discussion about filming a sequel that would cover Book 2, but this did not happen. [3] Ironically, Rogers' quest to find a Northwest Passage through North America, which gave both the novel and the film their title, takes place in Book 2, and is only briefly mentioned in the film.
Plot
In 1759, Langdon Towne, son of a ropemaker and ship rigger, returns to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after his expulsion from Harvard University. Although disappointed, his family greets him with love, as does Elizabeth Browne. Elizabeth's father, a noted clergyman, is less welcoming and denigrates Langdon's aspirations to become a painter.
At the local tavern with friend Sam Livermore, Langdon disparages Wiseman Clagett, the king's attorney and the Native American agent Sir William Johnson, unaware that Clagett is in the next room with another official. Facing arrest, Langdon fights the two men with the help of "Hunk" Marriner, a local woodsman and both escape into the countryside.
Fleeing westward, Langdon and Marriner stop in a backwoods tavern, where they help a man in a green uniform. After a night of drinking "Flip" (similar to hot buttered rum), the two men wake up at Fort Crown Point, where they learn the man they met is Major Robert Rogers, commander of Rogers' Rangers. In need of Langdon's map-making skills, Rogers recruits the two men for his latest expedition to destroy the hostile Abenakis tribe and their town of St. Francis, far to the north.
Rogers's force rows north in whale boats on Lake Champlain by night, evading French patrols, but several soldiers are injured in a confrontation with Mohawk scouts. Rogers sends not only the wounded back to Crown Point, but also the disloyal Mohawks provided by Sir William Johnson and a number of men who disobeyed orders. Concealing their boats, the depleted force marches through swampland to conceal their movements. Informed by Stockbridge Indian scouts that the French have captured their boats and extra supplies, Rogers revises his plan and sends an injured officer back to Fort Crown Point requesting the British send supplies to old Fort Wentworth, to be met by the returning rangers.
Making a human chain to cross a river, the rangers reach St. Francis. Their attack succeeds, and they set fire to the dwellings and cut the Abenakis off from retreat. After the battle, the rangers find only a few baskets of parched corn to replenish their provisions. Marriner finds Langdon shot in his abdomen. The rangers set out for Wentworth, pursued by hostile French and Indian forces. Their initial objective is Lake Memphremagog, with the injured Langdon bringing up the rear.
Ten days later, Rogers's men reach the hills above Lake Memphremagog. Encountering signs of French activity, Rogers prefers to press on a hundred miles to Fort Wentworth, but the men vote to split up into four parties to hunt for food. Game proves scarce and two of the detachments are ambushed by the French, leaving most of the men dead. Persevering through harsh conditions, Rogers and the remaining fifty men finally reach the fort, only to find it unoccupied and in disrepair, and the British relief column has not arrived. Though personally despairing, Rogers attempts to perk up their flagging spirits with a prayer. They then hear the fifes and drums of approaching British boats with the supplies. Reporting that the Abenakis have been destroyed, the British honour Rogers’ men by presenting their firearms and shouting "Hip, hip, hooray".
Returning to Portsmouth, Langdon reunites with Elizabeth while the Rangers are given a new mission: to find the Northwest Passage. Rogers fires them up with a speech about the wonders they will see on the march to the first point of embarkation, a little fort called "Detroit". He passes by Langdon and Elizabeth to say goodbye; Elizabeth informs him that she and Langdon are headed for London, where she is hopeful Langdon will become a great painter. Rogers bids them farewell, and marches down the road, into the sunset.
The title is something of a misnomer, since this film is a truncated version of the original story, and only at the end do we find that Rogers and his men are about to go on a search for the Northwest Passage.
The film wound up as MGM's most expensive film since Ben Hur (1926).[2] The picture was originally slated for an even more lavish budget in an earlier incarnation and was to star Wallace Beery and Tracy but management difficulties between Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer interceded at that time.
Reception
Box office
According to MGM records the film earned $2,169,000 in the US and Canada and $981,000 elsewhere but because of its high cost incurred a loss of $885,000.[1]
According to one source, the script was revised by as many as 12 other writers, in addition to the two credited.[4] Author Kenneth Roberts served as a co-writer on a second draft of a proposed script for the movie, one that covered the entire novel, not just the first book of it. However, executives at MGM scuttled the revision and instead used the first draft of the script, which covered only the first book, as the basis for the finished film. This is why the film Northwest Passage was subtitled Book One: Rogers' Rangers.
Director King Vidor then attempted to make a sequel to the film in which Rogers' Rangers find the Northwest Passage, although Roberts refused to cooperate with the project. But filming never began, because MGM ultimately refused to green-light it.
MGM produced a 1958-1959 American television series Northwest Passage starring Keith Larsen as Robert Rogers, with Buddy Ebsen costarring as "Hunk" Marriner, replacing Walter Brennan, who had his own TV series, The Real McCoys, in production at the time. The show aired on NBC.[5]
Legacy
Depiction of American Indians
The film's depiction of American Indians came to be criticized as racist, even by the standards of Hollywood at the time. This appraisal mirrors that of the section of the novel set during the French and Indian War, which has become equally regarded as racist.
Clive Denton, in his 1976 book The Hollywood Professionals: Volume 5, made these observations on the subject:
Vidor’s Northwest Passage “sits more than a trifle uneasily that [Spencer] Tracy and his submissive band attack and burn a sleeping Indian village. The tribe has massacred and outraged [innocent whites], we are told, but we have not seen them do anything wrong, and they are certainly not belligerent in their sleep. Perhaps I should not berate Vidor for the conventions of good guys and bad guys in adventure movies. But I am still somewhat bothered by Major Rogers, who, beneath Tracy’s charm, is something of a bastard...” (emphasis in original) [6]
^Denton, 1976 p. 19-20: Denton adds that Tracy’s character, Major Rogers “reminds his men to kill only bad Indians, not the good ones, who conveniently wear white crosses on their backs. Perhaps in 1939 one could question less the morality and the smooth practicality of such discrimination.”
