Raoul Walsh directed four of Errol Flynn's World War II movies at Warner Brothers. The best was "Objective: Burma" with Flynn and company parachuting into Burma to show the British who could stop the Japanese. Mind you, the British hated Flynn for this film, and Warners had to pull it before the Brits firebombed it. Although "Objective: Burma" ranked as the best of Flynn's collaborations with Walsh, their initial propaganda outing "Desperate Journey" was far more fun but totally unrealistic. Walsh and Flynn teamed up between these two combat pictures with "Northern Pursuit." Unlike the authentic-looking "Objective: Burma" that took place in the Pacific Theater of Operations and "Desperate Journey" with its European Theater of Operations, "Northern Pursuit" took place in appropriately above us in Canada. Flynn is cast as intrepid Corporal Steve Wagner of Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman. Meantime, a U-Boat lands Luftwaffe Colonel Hugo von Keller (Helmet Dantine of "Hotel Berlin") in Canada via a U-Boat, but his men and he don't get far before their Indian tracker precipitate an avalanche that killed Keller's men and left him barely alive. He stumbles onto a German aviator "Northern Pursuit" is the kind of World War II that nobody can complain about. Aside from Louis Milestone's "Edge of Darkness" where Flynn played a native Norwegian and Walsh's "Uncertain Glory" where he played a French criminal, Flynn played a Canadian. The plot here involves Keller as he searches for the parts to assemble a German bomber, so his men and he can bomb the St. Lawrence Waterway. As far as I know, this was the only wartime film that targeted the waterway, while many others took aim at the Panama Canal. Anyway, the RCMP discover something treasonous about Wagner owing to his German ancestry and they drum him out. Of course, you know that neither Flynn nor his character could have anything to do with the Nazis. Although it isn't as much fun as "Desperate Journey," pulp novelist Frank Gruber, scenarist Alvah Bessie, with an uncredited William Faulkner make its twists and turns palatable enough to be consistently entertaining stuff. Julie Bishop plays Flynn's love interest who doesn't believe that he could turn his back on Canada.

This is not a great movie, not Robin Hood or The Sea Hawk. But neither is it the bad movie some of the previous reviewers suggest.I found it very suspenseful.If you try viewing it as the original, intended audience did back in 1943, when the U.S. was not winning the war in Europe and there were fears of German infiltration everywhere, you can imagine how relevant this story would have been to audiences.Tension is maintained for much of the movie by keeping us in suspense regarding Flynn's character's allegiances. No, of course we can't believe he's really a Nazi, but for the first half of the movie, it certainly seems as if he might be.I was surprised, and thrown off guard, by the number of "good guys" who got killed in this movie. That made it seem more real to me.The last scene is pure Hollywood, and pure corn. But up until then, there is a lot to admire and enjoy in this movie.

Way up north in the Canadian outback, a German submarine rises out of the icy waters. Of those who disembark, only one survives, the rest knocked off in an avalanche. For this Nazi (Helmut Dantine), his goal is to get to a secret Nazi disapatchery of military supplies which include weapons and a war plane. Of the Northwest Mounted Police, it is the German descended Errol Flynn who becomes the pawn in his plan to get more of his men (all being transported to a prisoner of war detention center) and get to the secret base. Flynn pretends to be a traitor, and as for the rest, well, more of the same from other war propaganda films.Except, this more of the same is an exciting snowbound trek across the Yukon territory, as far up north as humanly possible to travel. There are a few plot clichés which include Flynn's fiancée Julie Bishop conveniently used by the Nazis to keep Flynn in line, and poor Gene Lockhart, typecast once again as a fool, a supposed American businessman who is a traitor both sinister and cowardly, getting no sympathy.As for Dantine, there are a few moments where his character shows tinges of humanity, but when you've got Hitler in your brain, those moments are brief. Flynn leaves his tongue out of his cheek for most of this movie in playing this character, whose alliances are briefly in question. A corny final moment seems thrown in as an unnecessary Hollywood "In Like Flynn" joke. The excitement of the rest of the film, though, makes that eye-rolling moment forgivable.

This is a real bow-wow.Errol Flynn stars in "Northern Pursuit," a 1943 propaganda film directed by Raoul Walsh. It also stars Helmut Dantine, Gene Lockhart, and Julie Bishop.Walsh told a story of how Jack Warner used to call him up to his office and tell him he had to direct a script for him. Warner would have no details, not even the cast. "Some bum," he would say, when Walsh asked him who was in it. This scenario might have been the case for "Northern Pursuit." Flynn and Walsh were very close friends, but they both might have been blind-sided into this one by dear old Jack.The premise story concerns Nazis in Canada who are trying to get way into the Canadian wilderness, where parts of a bomber have been hidden. Once assembled, it's going to take out the St. Lawrence Seaway. More than a little preposterous. Flynn is a mountie whose character is of German descent, so he goes undercover and, knowing the area, helps the Nazis on their journey.Even if you ignore this plot, and you have to in order to get through the movie, it's pretty slow going. There are some exciting scenes, but this isn't your usual Flynn adventure film. Helmut Dantine and Gene Lockhart give excellent performances, though, and handsome, charismatic Flynn does as well as he can given the circumstances.A youngster on this board trashed this movie, the 1940s audiences, and propaganda films in general, making mention of the "special effects." Given that this was filmed on a Warner sound stage without benefit of CGI and a computer, the film looks pretty good, with some very effective effects. I don't think the 1940s audiences were stupid -rather, I think the audiences today have been dumbed down. Propaganda movies weren't so that audiences would hate the enemy. I have a feeling they already did. They were done to keep up the morale during a very difficult time in this country. "Northern Pursuit" isn't particularly representative of the genre. When you consider the number of films the studios put out, they had a very high number of excellent ones. Okay, so this isn't one of them.