''Bush Pilot'' is a 1947 Canadian-American film directed by
Sterling Campbell
Sterling Campbell (born May 3, 1964) is an American drummer and songwriter who has worked with numerous high-profile acts, including The B-52s, Duran Duran, Soul Asylum, Cyndi Lauper, Nena, Grayson Hugh, Spandau Ballet, Gustavo Cerati and Dav ...
. The film, produced by Campbell's Dominion Productions, was noted for being one of the first full-length feature films outside Quebec in which a Canadian production company held the primary role."Soaring into the stratosphere of nationalist melodrama". ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', July 1, 1998.
Plot summary
Red North is a
bush pilot
Bush flying refers to aircraft operations carried out in the bush. Bush flying involves operations in rough terrain where there are often no prepared landing strips or runways, frequently necessitating that bush planes be equipped with abnormally ...
in the village of Nouvelle, part of Canada's north. His half-brother, Paul Gerard decides to relocate his bush pilot business to the same lake, competing with Red's business and romantic interests.
Cast
*
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson (born Rachael Elizabeth Hudson; March 6, 1916 – January 17, 1972) was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s.Jack La Rue as Paul Girard
*
Austin Willis
Alexander Austin Willis, (30 September 1917 – 4 April 2004) was a Canadian actor and television host.
Biography
Austin was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia to parents Alexander Samuel and Emma Graham (Pushie) Willis. His older brother, J. Fran ...
as "Red" North
* Florence Kennedy as Mrs. Ward
* Frank Perry as Chuck Ward
* Joseph Carr as Andy Moodie
* Gordon Adam
* Louise Campbell
* Charles Emerson
* Gerald Rowan
* James Peddie
* Denis Murphy
* Michael Lambert
* Robert Christie
*
Eric Clavering
Eric Clavering (1901–1989) was a British-born actor who spent much of his career in Canada. He played supporting roles in a number of British films during the Second World War. He later moved to Canada, and had a recurring role on the Canadian ...
* Nancy Graham
* Alene Kamis
Production
The film was one of the first narrative feature films produced in English by a Canadian film production company. The company was Dominion Productions Limited. Director Sterling Campbell was a partner in the company along with the film's producer Larry Cromien and star, Austin Willis and Geoffrey Wood. The main backer was Wood, founder of G. H. Wood & Co., a sanitation supply company that bore the motto "Sanitation for the Nation." He invested $160,000 in the film.
''Bush Pilot'' was meant to be the first of six films.
The movie was one of the first features to be shot in Toronto with studio work done at Queensway Studios. Outdoor and flight sequences filmed in the Muskoka region of Ontario, particularly Lake Rosseau.
Reception
Although
J. Arthur Rank
Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (22 December 1888 – 29 March 1972) was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation.
Family business
Rank was born on 22 or 23 December 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into ...
owned Queensway Studios, he did not pick up the film for distribution in his cinema chains.
The movie was not a box office success and Dominion films never made another film.
""I got pretty enthusiastic about all that film nonsense", Wood recalled in 1987. "But I didn't know what was going on. I knew as much about the movies as those movie people knew about sanitation."
Restoration
Wood deposited a nitrate negative of the film with the National Archives in 1972.
Although long out of print, the film was restored by the National Archives of Canada and The Movie Network in the 1990s, and was screened on the Movie Network as a special
Canada Day
Canada Day (french: Fête du Canada), formerly known as Dominion Day (french: Fête du Dominion), is the national day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 18 ...
broadcast in 1998.
According to the ''Globe and Mail'', "despite the hoary stereotypes and predictable plot, Bush Pilot was, to its credit, far ahead of its time in its unashamed use of specifically Canadian references."
The ''Toronto Star'' called it "a camp curio today, an unintended hoot.",