Canadian Pacific

Many actors owe their careers to Randolph Scott, debuting in one of his westerns and then rising to stardom in the years to come. Lee Marvin, James Coburn, and Mariette Hartley are all included in that group. If you want to see Nancy Olson's "introducing" credit, rent Canadian Pacific. The very next year, she snagged an Oscar nomination for Sunset Blvd. Not bad!

This isn't the best Randolph Scott movie out there, so if you want to watch his really classic westerns, check out the ones he made with his own production company: Scott-Brown Productions. (Those were almost always in Technicolor, which is a bonus.) One feature of this movie that I really enjoyed was the love triangle. At the start of the movie, he's totally in love with Nancy Olson, a girl from the country. Her hair flows free, her love is sweet, and she accepts him the way he is. Her only bone of contention is that he works too much and makes her wait to get married. Then, as the movie continues and focuses more on the less-interesting advent of the Canadian Pacific railway line, Scottie is introduced to a female doctor, Jane Wyatt. Jane is structured and makes him earn her respect and affection. But she's extremely anti-violence and doesn't accept him the way he is. Which will he pick?

If you're really interested in trains, you might like this one better than I did. I would have preferred the whole movie to be Scottie smooching his two girlfriends. Wouldn't that have been fun?