OVERLOOKED FILM: RENFREW OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (1937)

Back in 1923, Laurie York Erskine wrote the first of a popular series of boy's novels about Douglas Renfrew of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted.  The series ended after ten novels and some 17 short stories with 1941's Renfrew Flies Again.  By that time Renfrew was identified with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and had been the subject of a popular radio program from 1936-1940.

Renfrew hit the movie screens in 1937, when singing cowboys were all the rage and a year after Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy sand their way through Rose-Marie.  The die had been cast and Renfrew was fated to become a singing Mountie.  The title role went to James Newell, an opera-trained radio singer; Newell was featured in all eight films in the Renfrew series.  The romantic interest was provided by Carol Hughes (later Dale Arden in  1940's Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe)  as 19-year-old Virginia Bronson.  Songs are sung.  Dirty work is afoot.  And counterfeiters are smuggling phony money inside frozen trout.

As a precursor to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Renfrew has a dog named Yukon King Lighning.

In 1953, the films were re-edited for a syndicated television series.

Enjoy this "Northerner" directed by Albert Herman and scripted by Charles Logue.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI_c1xngSUs