''The Great Barrier'' is a 1937 British
historical drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Milton Rosmer
Milton Rosmer (4 November 1881 – 7 December 1971) was a British actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern ...
and
Geoffrey Barkas
Geoffrey Barkas (born Geoffrey de Gruchy Barkas, 27 August 1896 – 3 September 1979) was an English film maker active between the world wars.
Barkas led the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate in the Second World War. His larges ...
and starring
Richard Arlen
Richard Arlen (born Sylvanus Richard Mattimore, September 1, 1899 – March 28, 1976) was an American actor of film and television.
Biography
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Arlen attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served in Canada as a ...
,
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...
and
Antoinette Cellier. The film depicts the construction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
. It was based on the 1935 novel ''
The Great Divide'' by
Alan Sullivan
Edward Alan Sullivan (November 29, 1868 — August 6, 1947) was a Canadian poet and author of short stories. He is noted for his 1935 historical adventure novel '' The Great Divide'', which depicts the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. ...
. It was made at the
Lime Grove Studios in
Shepherd's Bush. The film's sets were designed by
Walter Murton
Walter Murton was a British art director, who worked from the 1920s until the 1940s. During his early career in the 1920s Murton was the regular set designer on the silent film series ''The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' and '' The Myst ...
.
Cast
*
Richard Arlen
Richard Arlen (born Sylvanus Richard Mattimore, September 1, 1899 – March 28, 1976) was an American actor of film and television.
Biography
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Arlen attended the University of Pennsylvania. He served in Canada as a ...
as Hickey
*
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...
as Lou
*
Antoinette Cellier as Mary Moody
*
Barry MacKay as Steve
*
Roy Emerton
Roy Emerton (9 October 1892 – 30 November 1944) was a British film actor.
Earlier in his life, he was a sailor, stoker, docker, railway worker, and miner and served in the First World War. He played in a great number of popular London stage p ...
as Moody
*
J. Farrell MacDonald
John Farrell MacDonald (June 6, 1875 – August 2, 1952) was an American character actor and director. He played supporting roles and occasional leads. He appeared in over 325 films over a four-decade career from 1911 to 1951, and directed fort ...
as Major Rogers
*
Ben Welden
Ben Welden (born Benjamin Weinblatt; June 12, 1901 – October 17, 1997) was an American character actor who played a wide variety of Damon Runyon-type gangsters in various movies and television shows.
Early years
Welden was born in Toledo, Oh ...
as Joe
* Jock MacKay as Bates
*
Ernest Sefton
Ernest Sefton (born as Ernest Henry Tipton; 13 January 1883 in Hackney, London – 5 December 1954) was a British film actor. He was the brother of Violet Loraine.
Selected filmography
* ''The Sign of Four'' (1932)
* ''The Innocents of Chi ...
as Magistrate
*
Henry Victor
Henry Victor (2 October 1892 – 15 March 1945) was an English-born character actor who had his highest profile in the film silent era, he appeared in numerous film roles in Britain, before emigrating to the US in 1939 where he continued ...
as Bulldog Kelly
*
Reginald Barlow
Reginald Harry Barlow (June 17, 1866 – July 6, 1943) was an American stage and screen character actor, author, and film director. He was a busy performer in Hollywood films of the 1930s.
Early life
A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts ...
as James Hill
*
Arthur Loft as
William Van Horne
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, (February 3, 1843September 11, 1915) is most famous for overseeing the construction of the first Canadian transcontinental railway, a project that was completed in 1885, in under half the projected time. He succe ...
*
Frank McGlynn Sr. as Sir John MacDonald
Production
It was one of a series of British Empire-related movies made by Gaumont around this time, others including ''Rhodes of Africa'', ''The Flying Doctor'' and ''Soldiers Three''.
The film involved 16 weeks location shooting in Canada.
Barbara Greene was borrowed from Fox. Location filming finished in June 1936.
Reception
Writing for ''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' in 1937,
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
gives the film a generally good review, describing it as "a thoroughly worthy picture", "well acted, well produced
nda little less than well written". Greene praised the saloon shindy and horseback race scenes, and commended Palmer's acting, however his primary criticism was that "it shrinks into significance, with its conventional love-story and the impression it leaves that the building of a railway depends on the heroic efforts of one or three men and a girl".
[ (reprinted in: )]
References
Bibliography
* Cook, Pam. ''Gainsborough Pictures''. Cassell, 1997.
External links
*
1937 films
1937 Western (genre) films
1930s historical drama films
British historical drama films
British Western (genre) films
Films directed by Geoffrey Barkas
Films directed by Milton Rosmer
Films shot at Lime Grove Studios
Films set in Canada
Films set in the 1880s
Films shot in British Columbia
Rail transport films
Films scored by Jack Beaver
British black-and-white films
1937 drama films
1930s English-language films
1930s British films
Gainsborough Pictures films
{{1930s-UK-film-stub