BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

weezeralfalfa One of Joan Leslie's hobbies was horse riding. She makes use of that skill in this horse-dominated cowless oater. Cleary, she's having a marvelous time, often at James Craig's(Dan) expense. Fortunately, it was filmed in Cinecolor, which had it's disadvantages, but the reds and blues, especially were as vivid as any Technicolor print, and at a far less cost. Joan's flaming orange hair was made for color cinemotography. The majority of shoots were done in the spectacular scenery of Banff National Park...The remainder of shoots were at the Calgary Stampede....In several parts, the main focus of attention is on a pure white stallion named White Outlaw or alternatively Blizzard. Blizzard was notoriously difficult to capture and tame. Blizzard favored a particular wild mare, thus providing an analogy to a man and woman, which Joan used to suggest a possible romance between herself and Dan. From what I have read, horse societies actually consist of a stallion and a harem, rather than this idealized pair. ...In the central portion of the film, Dan and Joan are competing for prizes in the Calgary Stampede. Both win some events, but Dan was the overall winner, thanks largely to an errant wheel on Joan's chuck wagon. Somehow, Joan gets ahold of Dan's winnings and buys 4 horses with it. Now, he can't fire her, as threatened, because he can't pay her back wages, over a year or so, for acting as foreman at his ranch....Dan wants to sell the ranch so he can continue to spent his time on the rodeo circuit, while Joan wants to stay on the ranch and raise or capture horses. Not clear how their budding romance can deal with this conflict. Joan is often impish in her competition with Dan, which much adds to the interest of the film....See it on YouTube.

bkoganbing I first saw this film over 60 years ago on our old black and white TV set on the Million Dollar Movie on WOR Channel 9 in New York. It made it to television early as apparently after Eagle-Lion Pictures went out of business its film library was sold to RKO and WOR was an RKO station. What I missed seeing of course was the spectacular technicolor cinematography of this film shot in the rugged Canadian northwest.James Craig is the son of a ranch owner and he's gone off to compete in the rodeos. He gets word that his dad has passed away and he goes off to settle the estate.He finds two things when he arrives, a bossy female foreman played by Joan Leslie who is every bit as skilled in the western ways as he is. He also finds that a white stallion that he raised as a kid gone off and now is the leader of the wild horses in the area. As a kid Craig named the horse Blizzard.If this had been done at Republic this film would have been perfect for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. We might have gotten a song or three in the film as well. But Craig and Leslie pair off well against each other and two well schooled scene stealers in Jack Oakie and Chill Wills as a pair of western characters appropriate every scene they're in.Northwest Stampede was a vivid childhood memory and I'm certainly glad through the good graces of YouTube that I got to see it again. It's nice family entertainment and I recommend it highly.

phadrs This could almost become a cult classic, sort of a Plan 9 From The Calgary Stampede. The plot is pleasant, however unbelievable. The scenery is quite nice and the color is lush. And then there are those moments like when Chris outruns the herd of horses escaping from the corral. Like the previous commentator, I was unsure of the period setting, until I saw Chris with an electric lamp on while telephoning. There are no cars as I recall, though, so it might be a mixed-time thing? Jack Oakie and Chill Wills are in good form.

Wilbur-10 Completely meritless Western concerning a top rodeo rider who takes over a ranch. The foreman of the ranch is a woman, who just happens to be a top female rodeo rider. The two have an immediate dislike for each other, but this animosity hides mutual respect which blossoms into romance.This is one of those films which really is terrible and dull to watch. The story and script are contrived and laboured, with nothing ever really happening. The film meanders painfully along for its short running time, scratching around for scenes to pad everything out.Film is in colour, which is surprising for a Western released in 1948, although there is some really bad back projection and stock rodeo footage. I also remember some dire animal effects in a scene where some wild horses are attacked by wolvesI was unsure as to the period setting of this turkey - it seemed to be the West of around the 1880's, but later had more of a mid- 20th Century feel about it. This may have been due to my lack of concentration but 'Northwest Stampede' is incredibly tiresome with nothing for the eye or mind to lock on to for more than a couple of minutes.As a low-budget Western of the 1940's with no names of any note, the film never promised much - despite these low expectations the film fails in every department and has no entertainment value whatsoever. Westerns with rodeo themes are always rubbish - you need cowboys, indians, the cavalry, the drunken sheriff, the saloon gal, the baddie in the black hat etc. - this was more like a Lassie film.