Romance Road (1938) User Reviews (6)

The Musical Mountie

[boblipton · 5/10 · 4 December 2019]

For about half a dozen hears, Warner Brothers produced three-strip Technicolor short subjects, the primary purpose of which was to show off the color process. With that in mind, they offered some marvelous photography -- great production numbers and bright, bright colors. What could be more colorful than the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their bright, red tunics? What could be stirring than Rudolf-Friml-style songs, with choreography by Bobby Connelly, now promoted to director?

Mounties were popular stage characters. If all we know of them these days is ROSE-MARIE and Dudley Do-Right, these 'Northerners' are a genre of movie whose time had passed. They look mildly ridiculous, even when the conventions are being taken seriously. However, the pictures are handsome, the players are good-looking and that's a bit of all right.

This Warner Bros. spoof of Jeanette MacDonald\Nelson Eddy musicals . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 24 April 2015]

. . . probably seemed a wonderful way to save about 90 minutes of time when it was released in 1938, but it might be just as effective today if an editor pared it down from nearly 19 minutes to ten or so. For instance, Mountie Shane could yell out, "Stop, in the name of the King!" during the first five minutes, so that the only two Native Canadians in the tribe who do NOT dress like chiefs might be saved from the railroad's serial rapist. The opening title card of ROMANCE ROAD says that Mounties are encouraged to mix business with pleasure, wooing the most eligible chicks around as they move from town to town in their bright red uniforms to replenish a thinning Canadian gene pool. After wedding planning, priority Number Two seems to be enforcing Fat Cat Englishmen's property rights over the livelihoods and well-being of any "Frenchies" or Native Canadians who are in the way. This live action short was made so long ago that Canadians still flew a real-looking national flag, rather than a banner featuring a forest waste product. That's why those North of the border will want to view this in its buffoonish entirety.

Never a romantic movie, almost always messy

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 March 2019]

"Romance Road" is an American live action short film from 1938, so this one had its 80th anniversary already last year. The director is 4-time Academy Award nominee Bobby Connolly. His film here runs for under 20 minutes and takes us back into the days of when rails for locomotives were built. The main conflict here is between a railroad company representative and an Indian trapper and well there is a Canadian mountie sent out to solve the conflict. But it is already too far progressed for solving. When a young lovestruck squaw kills herself, then there is no coming back to peace for these involved. In the end, they both die and the mountie gets the attractive female that the railroad man was after. Well, there is really only one positive thing I can say about this film and that is that it is in colour. It certainly would have been an even weaker watch if it was black-and-white. But the characters are all black and white: The Indians are the good guys,s ame for the mountie and the railroad man is the true villain. His helpers aren't even evil, just him. I struggles a lot with the story too. Why would the Indian girl start dating the bad guy if he is the enemy. The cuts from scenes like the Indian woman's suicide (why did she scream when falling) back to the mountie felt truly clumsy on several occasions. Editing is definitely not a strength of this film. The big spectacular fight sequence towards the end does not look very good either. And it is a very rushed movie. After the bad guy is killed, everybody else from the railroad company is suddenly or still friendly and seconds after they find a solution. A few seconds later (yes I know there's a jump in time), the mountie marries. This could have fit in 90 minutes, but hopefully with better execution and attention to detail, but as a film of not even a third of an hour, it simply isn't working and you should skip the watch. The acting isn't great either. Most of the cast weren't too prolific and this surprisingly applies most to lead actor Cassel. I hink this film here is an add-on on the DVD for the old Best Picture winning movie about Emile Zola. I cannot comment on the latter (yet?), but this one here does not deserve to be seen. I give it a thumbs-down. More on the shoddy side as a whole.

Warners take on Rose-Marie

[lzf0 · 9 September 2010]

This beautiful 3-strip Technicolor two reeler is a variation on the Friml-Stothart-Harbach-Hammerstein musical dealing with Canadian Mounties. This time around there is conflict between the men building a new railroad and the native French-Canadian trappers. Also in the mix, like Rose-Marie, is an abusive relationship between a white man and a Native American girl. The Mountie is summoned to save the day.

It's not a bad film, but the plot may be a bit much for a two reel short and characters are undeveloped. It's all rather melodramatic. The film is also devoid of humor. The songs, with lyrics by Jack Scholl and music by M. K. Jerome, are serviceable, but are not in the class with Friml melodies. Don't get me wrong. Scholl and Jerome wrote tons of music and lyrics mostly for Warners shorts and "B" pictures. Occasionally, one of their songs found its way into an "A" production, like "Knock on Wood" in "Casablanca" or "Some Sunday Morning" from "San Antonio". They are definitely unsung musical heroes of Hollywood and their work should be re-evaluated.

like a big lame movie condensed into one short lame movie!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 21 February 2011]

I have no idea why, but Hollywood had a mild obsession with the Mounties (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to be precise). They were featured in quite a few movies ranging from a silent with Lon Chaney to a warbling Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy film to an epic by Cecil B. DeMille. And in each case, the Mounties not only get their man but are darn nice! In this film, a Sergeant is sent to a trouble spot where railroad folks and trappers are about to come to blows. Once there, he soon sees that most of the problem is being caused by the railroad boss, as he's a total.....jerk. In the end, there is a huge fight in which an angry native, the railroaders, trappers and the Mountie all nearly get killed. Importantly, the railroad boss dies and everyone celebrates with punch and cookies....or at least they all somehow miraculously make up and the film ends.

All in all, the story is VERY simplistic and the characters very one-dimensional. As a result, the film comes off as silly and hard to believe. Unlike some of the other shorts by writer/director Billy Connelly, this one is pretty lame and did not age particularly well--even with its nice Technicolor.

By the way, the film has a huge cast of, well, only about a dozen--so the big climactic scene seems a bit sillier. If you still want to see it, it's one of the special features on the disk "The Life of Émile Zola"--an excellent film even if the short isn't.

Weak Short

[Michael_Elliott · 8 September 2010]

Romance Road (1938)

** (out of 4)

Weak romance about a RCMP sergeant who finds himself in the middle of a land rights battle between trappers and a railroad crew. The two sides are battling over what the land is for while the officer has this on his mind as well as a relationship with one of the locals. If it wasn't for one item this short would have been a complete disaster because there's really nothing good here. The story is about as simple as one could be and nothing special is done with it. The acting is below par to say the least and the relationship between Walter Cassel and Anne Nagel never rings true. Another major problem are the two songs that we get to hear because neither one is catchy and I'd say both should have been tossed out to save us from the 19-minute running time. What makes this film worth viewing is the 3-strip Technicolor. This color process wasn't widely used in 1938 so you can almost overlook all the flaws here because it's obvious everyone involved was more interested in making the picture look pretty and not overly worried about anything else. Fans of the 3-strip process will want to check this short out but others should stay clear.