Northern Pursuit (1943)

Northern Pursuit is an okay adventure yarn/spy thriller -- nothing great, made up mostly of bits and pieces we've all seen before, but put together professionally and with just enough spirit to make it entertaining. With Errol Flynn on hand, you know that the lead character will evince sufficient charm and sufficient derring-do, but at the same time there's simply something disconcerting about seeing Flynn as a Mountie. It just doesn't seem natural, and that impression dogs the whole film. Very much a product of its day, modern viewers may find its heavyhanded depictions of the Nazis a bit much to swallow; they're drawn too much as stock screen villains, evil personified, and it's difficult to view them without thinking they could have been shown to be just as evil in a less stereotypical manner. That said, Helmut Dantine's performance as the particularly nasty Nazi is exactly what the screenplay calls for; he delivers a performance that's memorably vile. Less memorable is Julie Bishop, who as the love interest looks attractive but adds little in the way of a dramatic performance. Raoul Walsh directs with an eye toward the adventure elements and provides enough tension and suspense to help one leap over some of the holes in the screenplay. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide