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Policing the Plains
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Wikipedia article
'Policing the Plains' was a Canadian silent feature film produced in the years 1924-1927 by Vancouver filmmaker Arthur David "Cowboy" Kean (1882-1961) . It was an historical docudrama about the Royal North-West Mounted Police (later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), based on the 1921 book of the same name by Rev. R. G. MacBeth, a Vancouver minister and well-known popular historian.
Director A. D. Kean believed in the ideal of a Canadian film industry that would celebrate Canadian and British history, values, and institutions. He also intended the film as a corrective to the clichd and inaccurate portrayal of the RNWMP and its members in the numerous "Mountie movies" that were churned out by Hollywood studios during the silent era. Through personal contacts, he was able to secure the co-operation of the RCMP, including the loan of uniforms and equipment. Assistant Commissioner T. A. Wroughton, of the RCMP's "E" Division, served as the film's technical advisor, and led a squad of Mounties shown in the opening scenes.
Plot
The film depicted episodes from the first fifty years of the force's existence, including: the Cypress Hills Massacre; the force's creation and March West; its relations with First Nations peoples on the prairies; the founding of Fort Macleod; the pursuit of whisky traders; the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway; the Canadian sojourn of Sitting Bull and his followers; the Klondike Gold Rush; and modern police methods in the 1920s.[Kean, A. D.] (December 1927). "Royal Alexandra: Policing the Plains" [program from Toronto premiere]: "Synopsis" & "Cast of Principal Characters." In A. D. Kean papers, MS-2456, box 2 file 2, BC Archives.
Cast
The cast members were almost all non-professionals; many were recruited more for their ability to ride and handle horses convincingly, rather than for any noteworthy acting ability. Leading parts were played by Alfred Crump, Jack Downing [a.k.a. Jack Boyd], Joe Fleiger, Dorothy Fowler, James G. Harrison, Donald Hayes, Senior Heaton, Margaret Lougheed, Norman Randall, and Col. T. A. Wroughton. In addition, many members of the Blood First Nation appeared in crowd and camp scenes, wearing traditional dress and riding their own horses.Duffy & Mattison, 35-36.
Locations
'Policing the Plains' was shot almost entirely on location, at Green Lake, Vancouver and Victoria (British Columbia); Macleod, Standoff, Banff, and Buffalo National Park, near Wainwright (Alberta); Amulet (Saskatchewan); Lower Fort Garry (Manitoba); and Toronto (Ontario). Much of the outdoor action was filmed on the Blood Indian Reserve near Macleod. Interior scenes were later shot in Trenton, Ontario, at the studios of the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau.Duffy & Mattison, 36-38.
Production difficulties
'Policing the Plains' began production in April 1924 under Kean's own Western Pictures Company; after a financial re-organization in 1925, it was completed by Policing the Plains Productions Ltd. Initially budgeted at $40,000 (Canadian), the film eventually cost over $125,000. Kean was the sole screenwriter, producer, director, and cinematographer, and also handled publicity and some of the fund-raising. The film was in production for a prolonged periodnearly three and half yearsand ran into a host of financial, logistical, and technical difficulties.
'Policing the Plains' premiered publicly in a six-day run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, December 19 to 24, 1927. Kean was unable to secure further exhibition and distribution for the picture, and eventually it was lost. Leaving the film industry after the film's failure, Kean moved to the Toronto area, where he became a well-known journalist, broadcaster, photographer, and horse trainer.Duffy & Mattison, 38-41; Kjorlien, Melanie (Summer 1997). "Cowboy Kean." 'Glenbow', 17:1, pp. 2-5.
Criticism
On its Toronto premiere, the picture receiving mixed reviews in the local and film trade press. The Toronto 'Globe' reviewer was enthusiastic, calling the film "a triumph for Canadian enterprise." The 'Daily Star' praised its authenticity, but criticized its lack of "dramatic technique." Other writers pointed out its inadequate resources and funding, poor direction, and box office failure.
Like virtually all 20th century motion pictures about the history of the West in North America, the film embraced the ideology of settler colonialism, and the idea that the displacement and assimilation of Indigenous peoples was necessary to make room for settlement and development by Europeans. The narrative of the Canadian West may have been depicted as more benign, more orderly, and much less violent than that of the American Westbut the ultimate objective was still containment and control of the First Nations.
Preservation status
'Policing the Plains' is considered to be a lost film. In 1937, the negative was in an Ontario government film vault, but there is no evidence of its whereabouts since then.Duffy & Mattison, 39. The [https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/d-kean-fonds A. D. Kean fonds (PR- 0755)] at the BC Archives/Royal BC Museum includes more than a hundred production stills from the film, as well as some of the production paperwork.
References
Category:Canadian black-and-white films
Category:Canadian documentary films
Category:Lost Canadian films
Category:Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fiction
Category:1927 documentary films
Category:1927 films
Category:Documentary films about law enforcement in Canada
Category:1920s Canadian films
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