Reviewing Movies

The present TV Movie appears to have been a pilot for the CBC TV Series of the same name. No word on why Chad Willet didn't stick around for the mini-series that followed. I liked the way he interacted with Ted Atherton as Pan Phillipps who was included in both. Panhandle Phillipps and Richmond P. Hobson Jr. ran a cattle herd on bunch grass in Northern BC wilderness territory that made this the largest cattle ranch in the world. The characters of Rich, Gloria and Pan are based on their real-life counterparts and this series is based on the memoirs that Rich himself wrote. The three books are Grass Beyond The Mountains, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy, and The Rancher Takes a Wife, published in the 1950s. These biographical accounts serve to prove that Canada really does have swashbuckling heroes even if we have to import them from America.

Whereas the movie was shot in Ontario the big budget Mini-Series that followed was shot on location in Northern BC. Both follow the lives of these modern day pioneers as they seek to carve a living out of a vast, unforgiving, northern wilderness. Pan Phillipps was a cowboy but his partner Rich was a Stanford-educated stockbroker who decided to toss it all aside for a romantic high-stakes adventure. That romance is spiced up by the addition of a love-at-first-sight whirlwind romance between Richmond and a gal he runs into when an errant animal he is herding runs through a country-club garden party. This overnight courtship leads to marriage next day and the arrival of a courtly lady in the Northern BC Bush. The by-play between the three partners skirts the edge of slap-stick.

World War II intervenes and forces Rich to hire three boys and a wanted fugitive as his ranch hands prompting Pan to declare that Gloria and Richmond have an instant family. What follows is a heart-warming drama about situations that require everyone to keep their sense of humour. Even in conditions which could have led to mean spiritedness Rich and Gloria bring a big-heated dedication to the task at hand. There is something so Canadian about this story that it deserves to be more widely told.