My Top 20 Favourite Alfred Hitchcock Movies

The lovely and talented Kate Gabrielle of Silents and Talkies recently did a post on her twenty favourite movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock being one of my favourite directors of all time, I thought I would do one too. It is perhaps a testament to his long career and the quality of his work that anyone could compile a list of his or her favourite films that Hitchcock made!

Here I must note that I do not include The Lodger, although I do love it, as I see silent movies as a different medium from talkies. What makes for a good silent might not make for a good talkie and vice versa!


 1. North by Northwest
 2. Rear Window
 3. Vertigo
 4. Dial M for Murder
 5. The Birds
 6. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
 7. The Trouble with Harry
 8. The Lady Vanishes
 9. The 39 Steps
10. Shadow of a Doubt
11. Psycho
12. Rebecca
13. Sabotage
14. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
15.  To Catch a Thief
16. Notorious
17. Spellbound
18. Foreign Correspondent
19. Lifeboat
20. Saboteur

Nan Martin R.I.P.

Nan Martin, who appeared frequently on television, film, and stage, passed on Thursday at the age of 82.

Nan Martin was born in Decatur, Illinois on July 15, 1927, but was raised in Santa Monica, California. Her acting career began when attending the University of California, Los Angeles part time and she was received a role in the school's production of The Gentle People. Eventually she moved to New York and made her debut on Broadway in 1950 in the play  A Story for a Sunday Evening. The following year she appeared in ta revival of The Constant Wife.

Nan Martin made her television debut on Studio 57 in 1955 and her film debut in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit the following year. From 1955 to 2005, Martin would then have an incredibly prolific career. On Broadway she appeared in a revival of Makropoulos Secret (1957), J.B. (1958), The Great God Brown (1959), a revival of Lysistrata (1959), a revival of Henry VI Part I (1960), Under the Yum-Yum Tree (1960), Come Live with Me (1967), Summer Brave (1975), and The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1976).  In California she was part of the South Coast Repertory, with which she performed in such plays as The Road to Mecca, Buried Child, and All My Sons.

 Nan Martin appeared very frequently on television. In the Fifties she guest starred on such shows as Robert Montgomery Presents, Sunday Showcase, and Play of the Week. In the Sixties she guest starred on Ben Casey, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, The Defenders, The Fugitive, Perry Mason, and Mission: Impossible. In the Seventies she guest starred on Bewitched, The F.B.I.,and Ellery Queen. In the Eighties she guest starred on Hart to Hart, Star Trek: the Next Generation, Columbo, and The Golden Girls. She was one of the stars of the series Mr. Sunshine and appeared in the mini-series The Thorn Birds. In the Nineties she guest starred on The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and ER. She was a semi-regular on The Drew Carey Show as Mrs.Louder. In the Naughts she guest starred on Six Feet Under, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Las Vegas.

Nan Martin also appeared in a large number of films. In the Sixties she appeared in the 1964 version of Toys in the Attic, Hamlet, The Art of Love, For the Love of Ivy, and Goodbye, Columbus. In the Seventies she appeared in The Young Nurses, The Other Side of the Mountain, Jackson County Jail, and A Small Circle of Friends. In Eighties she appeared in All of Me, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3:  Dream Warriors. From the Nineties into the Naughts she appeared in Last Gasp, Big Eden, Forever Lulu, and Cast Away.

Jay Leno's Catastrophic Return to The Tonight Show

Last night Jay Leno made his return to The Tonight Show. From NBC's behaviour when they decided to bring Leno back to the show, even from the promos they aired during the Olympics, it seems obvious that they not only hoped Leno's return to The Tonight Show would be a triumphant one, they honestly believed it. Now that Jay Leno's return has aired, however, it must seem obvious to most, perhaps everyone but NBC and Leno's most loyal fans,  that it was anything but triumphant. Indeed, if last night's show was any indication, it seems apparent that Leno may not stay on The Tonight Show long.

The plain truth is that critics' reactions to Jay Leno's first episode back on The Tonight Show were underwhelming to say the least. The consensus  of most critics was that Jay Leno simply trotted out the same old material for his return engagement on television's oldest late night show. Frazier Moore of the Associated Press summed it up as "the same old Jay with pretty much the same old Tonight Show." Raju Mudhar of The Toronto Star noted, "...what was remarkable with these guests was how unremarkable Leno was. It really was as if he had never left." James Poniewozik of Time noted  that the monologue "...could largely have been a Leno monologue from before The Jay Leno Show, right down to a set of jokes about the previous Presidential administration." Some critics were even more vicious with regards to Leno's performance. In USA Today Robert Bianco (not a critic I often agree with) referred to Leno's monologue as "tired, lame, and unfunny."

Now I must confess I did not watch Jay Leno's return to The Tonight Show out of protest over their treatment of Conan O'Brien, but it is hard to ignore the reviews it received,  the vast majority of which are negative. I might be inclined to ignore Robert Bianco's review (as I said, I don't often agree with him), but when every single critic I've read also sum up Leno's return to The Tonight Show as tired and stale, I have to believe it probably was. And to be honest, it does not surprise me. Jay Leno's prime time show was nearly the same as his version of The Tonight Show. And his version of The Tonight Show has changed very little in the past sixteen years. Jokes which are moderately funny at best. Repartee with his bandleader. Lame routines (Jaywalking, anyone?). In the history of late night hosts, Jay Leno ranks among the least original and the least cutting edge. Although he is not necessarily a bad host, he is the very definition of a mediocre host.

Of course, regardless of the reviews, Leno did beat Letterman in the ratings. Early ratings estimate that 6.6 million people tuned into see Leno return to The Tonight Show. While this might seem like a victory, I rather suspect it should not be considered such. It is lower than the 9.2 million who watched Conan O'Brien's debut on The Tonight Show last year. It is much lower than the 17.7 million viewers who tuned in to the first outing of The Jay Leno Show, a show whose ratings dropped dramatically over the following weeks. While I have no doubt that loyal Jay Leno fans tuned into the show last night, I rather suspect many tuned in out of curiosity. I also believe that the ratings will drop drastically in the coming weeks. By April Letterman might not only be beating Leno, he may well be trouncing him. Quite simply, NBC may have a ratings catastrophe on their hands.


Indeed, the makings for a ratings catastrophe have been there ever since NBC decided to return Leno to late night. It's not simply the case of Leno trotting out the same old jokes and same old routines. Comedians have made it on stale material before. It is the fact that whole late night war from the beginning of the year substantially changed Leno's image. Previously he was well liked. People thought he was a nice guy. Now many think of him as an absolute jerk. Some even share Howard Stern's sentiment expressed on CBS' The Early Show, "Just the mere mention of Jay Leno's name makes me want to vomit." Given the level of animosity that still exists towards Leno and the fact that neither Leno nor NBC have made an effort to make amends with the viewing public, it seems likely that viewers might start staying away from Leno in droves. In the end, his return to The Tonight Show may be shorter than Conan's stint on the show. When that happens, maybe at long last NBC will realise how grave their mistake was in betting on the wrong horse.

NyQuil

The past several days I have had a cold severe enough that I called into work today and went to the doctor. Indeed, my nose was so congested that Saturday night I had difficulty getting to sleep. That is, until I took NyQuil. For those of us with severe colds, NyQuil is something of a miracle drug. Not only does it relieve symptoms of a cold, but it actually lets one get some sleep at the same time. The adverts are not mere hyperbole when they proclaim Ny Quil to be "The nighttime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can rest medicine."

Prior to the late Sixties, the vast majority of cold remedies were sold as tablets. Liquids were only reserved for treating coughs. Vicks' Reserch and Development team then formulated a liquid cold remedy that would also help people sleep. As to how NyQuil received its name, no one is quite certain of that. According to the Vicks web site, one legend is that it came from the phrase "nighttime tranquillity." NyQuil was first test marketed in 1966. In the fall of 1968 it was introduced to the general public with a blitz of television commercials and print ads. It was in 1979 that the classic slogan "The nighttime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can rest medicine" was introduced.

Over the years, beyond its packaging, NyQuil would change very little. It was in 1987 that a cherry flavoured version of the medicine was introduced. In 1991 NyQuil LiquiCaps were introduced. Not only was it the first time that NyQuil was sold in something other than a liquid, it was also the first time that a liquid cold remedy was placed within a capsule. Eventually it would lead to nearly every Vicks cold medicine product to be sold in solid form. In 2006 NyQuil Sinus was introduced.

It was also at this time that a significant change was made in the NyQuil formula. NyQuil originally contained the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used in making metaaphetamines. In 2006 the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act was passed, seeking to stem the spread of metaaphetamines. According to the new law, all pseudoephedrine-containing medicines would have to be kept behind pharmacy counters and every single purchase recorded. Vicks decided that to keep their products in easy reach of consumers, they would remove pseudoephedrine from all their products. The pseudoephedrine in NyQuil was then replaced with phenylephrine. When many protested that phenylephrine was less effective than pseudoephedrine, Vicks introduced Nyquil-D, essentially the original NyQuil formula. As it contains pseudoephedrin, NyQuil-D is kept behind pharmacy counters.

 Here I should perhaps say something about NyQuil's daytime equivalent, DayQuil. Development on DayQuil began even as NyQuil was being test marketed. Although tested under the name DayQuil, it was introduced in 1976 under the name DayCare. Unfortunately, DayCare would not prove to be the success that NyQuil was. It was reintroduced in 1992 under the DayQuil name.

Below is an early advert for NyQuil, I suspect from the late Sixties or early Seventies. Notice the well known slogan is absent.



Below is a 1993 commercial, by which time the well known slogan was in place. By the way, if the actor in the advert seems familiar, it's because it's Nathan Lane.



Finally, here is more recent commercial which aired during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. It stars short track star Apollo Ohno (sadly, they did not make one with Lindsey Vonn, whom I much prefer looking at....).



When NyQuil was introduced in 1968, it was revolutionary. At the time liquid cold medicines were nearly unknown. Since then it has generated many spinoff products, everything from NyQuil Cold/Flu Multisymptom Relief to NyQuil Sinus, LiquiCaps, and even DayQuil. It has also inspired many imitators over the years, products which also seek to treat cold symptoms while providing for a good nights sleep. Arguably, it has been one of the more successful products of the late Twentieth Century.

How Gunsmoke Gunned Down Gilligan's Island

There can be no argument that Gilligan's Island was one of the most successful television series of all time. The show has been translated into over a dozen languages and aired in 74 countries. It even managed what seemed impossible, surpassing I Love Lucy in syndication. What might surprise many of the show's loyal viewers, at least those unaware of its history, is that Gilligan's Island only ran three seasons. Many might conclude that it was simply cancelled due to poor ratings. After all, this is why the vast majority of shows are cancelled. In truth, however, Gilligan's Island had respectable ratings until the very end. Its cancellation came about not due to low ratings, but the feelings at the upper reaches of CBS about the show and about another legendary show called Gunsmoke.

The seeds for Gilligan's Island were sown even as it debuted on CBS on September 26, 1964. Even today Gilligan's Island is sometimes cited as an example of bad television, but the reviews which came in from critics in the wake of its premiere were ever worse. Gilligan's Island was firmly trounced by critics at the time. Not only were the notices bad on the whole, but many critics cited it as one of the worst shows ever made.This did not sit well with the head of CBS William S. Paley, who always prided himself on the quality of programming on the network.

Unfortunately for Mr. Paley, Gilligan's Island proved to be a hit. Not only did it routinely win its time slot, but for the 1964-1965 season it ranked #18 in Nielsen's top twenty five shows. At the time CBS had a policy in scheduling to keep successful shows in the same time slot; however, an exception would be made for Gilligan's Island, which had proven to be an embarrassment to the network. The series was then moved from its 8:30 PM Eastern Saturday time slot to 8:00 PM Eastern Thursday for for the 1965-1966 season. The change in time slot hurt Gilligan's Island very little in the ratings. The show came in 22nd n Nielsen's top twenty five shows. For its third season Gilligan's Island was moved once more, this time to 7:30 PM Eastern Monday. While the show fell out of the top twenty five shows according to Nielsen for the season, its ratings were still respectable and it consistently won its time slot. CBS not only renewed Gilligan's Island, but decided to keep it in the same time slot. It would be followed by a new situation comedy entitled Doc, starring Eldon Quick as a young physician hired by an older physician played by John McIntire.

While Gilligan's Island was set to return in the same time slot for the 1967-1968 season, a television stalwart was set to go off the air. Gunsmoke was one of three Westerns to debut in the fall of 1955 (the others were The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and Cheyenne) and spurred the phenomenally huge cycle towards Westerns in the late Fifties. From 1957 to 1961 it was the number one show on television. Unfortunately, after Gunsmoke was expanded from a half hour to an hour, it experienced a slide in the ratings. By the 1966-1967 season it had fallen to #34 for the year in the ratings. While this was still respectable, it was a far cry from the days when it was the #1 show on the air. At the same time, its audience had grown older and its audience was largely rural. It was then in the 1966/1967 that the programmers at CBS decided to cancel Gunsmoke at the end of its twelfth season.

The outcry was immediate. Critics and viewers alike were outraged. Senate Robert Byrd even criticised the network's decision on the Senate floor. Even with such outcry, it is quite possible that CBS would not have given Gunsmoke a reprieve had it not been for one thing. Quite simply, Gunsmoke was among the favourite shows of both William S. Paley and his wife Babe. When he saw that Gunsmoke was not on the fall 1967-1968 schedule, he immediately called CBS vice president Mike Dann and demanded that the show be renewed. With visions of losing their jobs, CBS' programmers then rushed to find a solution to their scheduling dilemma. Unfortunately their solution would not be one that would be pleasing to the cast and crew of Gilligan's Island.

As mentioned above, Gilligan's Island had received atrocious notices upon its debut. This had won it no love from Wlliam S. Paley, who wanted programming on CBS to be high in quality. At the same time CBS' affiliates had shown an extreme dislike for the new sitcom Doc, which was set to follow Gilligan's Island. It was then decided that Gilligan's Island, which had always been a bit of an embarrassment to Mr. Paley, and Doc, which was not popular with the affiliates, would be cancelled and Gunsmoke would return in the 7:30 PM Eastern Monday time slot.

The repercussions of the reprieve Gunsmoke was given would not end with the cancellation of Gilligan's Island. In its new time slot, Gunsmoke made a miraculous recovery. It jumped from the bottom of #34 to the top ten for the 1967-1968 season. With such phenomenal ratings, the shows on NBC and ABC could not compete. On NBC The Monkees, which was directly against the first half hour of Gunsmoke, saw a drop in its ratings. The Man From U.N.C.L.E, whose first half hour aired against the second half hour of Gunsmoke, had already seen a drop in its ratings in its third season. In its fourth season its ratings dropped even more. As to the new series on ABC, Cowboy in Africa, it never had a chance. In the end, Gunsmoke would run another eight years. As to Gilligan's Island, it went onto become a sensation in syndication.

It was William S. Paley and his wife's love of Gunsmoke that would ultimately be the reason that Gilligan's Island ran only three seasons. What is more, the return of Gunsmoke would take down three other shows on the competing networks, two of which (The Monkees and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) are counted as classics in many quarters. While no one can say how things would have unfolded had Gunsmoke not been renewed and moved to Monday night, one can probably guess that things would have unfolded very differently.

(Credit Where Credit is Due Department: In addition to the usual news archives and IMDB, I relied a good deal on Inside Gilligan's Island by Sherwood Schwartz. This book is not only useful for anyone curious about the history of that series, but for anyone who wants an inside view on the inner workings of television series and broadcast networks in the Sixties).

Joan Bennett's 100th Birthday

Perhaps no actor ever had as diverse a career as Joan Bennett. It was not simply that she saw success on stage, in movies, and on television, although she did. It was more a case that she played a large variety of roles, often very different from each other, and did so very well. She started out playing blonde ingénues (blonde being her natural colour) before playing brunette femme fatales. Towards the end of her career she often played the mother figure. In between she played an enormous array of different parts, everything from a naive blonde to a dangerous seductress to a caring mother to the head of a witch's coven. And in every case she did so with a sincerity and conviction of which only few actors are capable.

Joan Bennett was born 100 years ago today, on February 27, 1910. It could literally be said that she had acting in her blood. Her father was Richard Bennett, star of the stage and a matinee idol of the early Silent Era. Her mother was Adrienne Morrison, an actress on stage and in early silents. Her maternal grandfather was stage actor Lewis Morrison. Her maternal grandmother was actress Rose Wood, whose lineage in acting reached all the way back to 18th century England. Before her, her older sisters also became actresses. Constance starred in such films as Topper and Two Faced Woman. Barbara met with less success, appearing in a few silents. Miss Bennett attended St. Margaret's, a private school in Waterbury, Connecticut and later L'Hermitage in Versailles, France. She married for the first time when she was only sixteen. She divorced her husband, John Marion Fox, later saying that he was a drunkard and a playboy, when she was only 18.

Joan Bennett made her film debut when she was only six, alongside her parents in the film Valley of Decision, released in 1916. She also appeared in a small part in The Eternal City when she was only 13. Despite this, she had no intention of going into the family business. At age 18, however, she found herself divorced with an infant daughter. In need of work, she accepted a role in her father's play Jarnegan, making her Broadway debut in the process. The novice actress received good notices and Miss Bennett's acting career officially began. She played small parts in Power (1928) and The Divnie Lady (1929) before being cast as the female lead in Bulldog Drummond. Under contract to Fox, Miss Bennett generally played blonde ingénues, such as the love interest in the 1930 version of Moby Dick, although there were exceptions.  In The Trial of Vivienee Ware she played the acccused murderer of the title. In Me and My Gal she gave one of the best perfromances of her early career, as a wisecracking waitress. A shift in her career would occur when she made Little Women at RKO, released in 1933. Miss Bennett's performance in the film attracted the attention of independent filmmaker William Wanger. Wanger not only signed her to a contract, but also acted as her manager as well.

Under contract to Wanger, Miss  Bennett no longer played blonde ingénues,  but more substantial roles. In 1935 she played a psychiatrist's young wife who was experiencing a psychotic break in Private Worlds. In Big Brown Eyes, released in 1936, she played a reporter helping her police officer boyfriend (Cary Grant) on a case involving jewel thieves. Joan Bennett was one of the actresses in the running for the role of Scarlet O'Hara. For a short time she was one of the front runners for the part, but lost it in favour of Paulette Goddard and Vivien Leigh (who was ultimately cast in the role).

It would be in 1938 that Miss Bennett's career would take a major change. It was that year that Walter Wagner had a hit with Algiers, which introducing the United States to dark haired beauty Hedy Lamarr. Thinking to capitalised on Miss Lamarr's mystique, Wanger and director Tay Garnett convinced the naturally blonde Miss Bennett to go brunette for the part of Kay Kerrigan. in Trade Winds.  With her newly dark locks, Joan Bennett soon found herself cast in new roles. She appeared in the crime drama The House Across the Bay in 1940 and the political melodrama The Man I Married in 1940. It would be 1941 that would establish Joan Bennett in the sort of roles for which she is now best known, as a film noir femme fatale.


It was in 1941 that Miss Bennett played Cockney prostitute Jerry Stokes in Fritz Lang's Man Hunt. She nad Lang would work together again in 1944's The Woman in the Window, playing mystery woman Alice Reed. They worked together in arguably their best film, 1945's Scarlet Street, in which she played blackmailer Kitty March. Joan Bennett also appeared in Lang's 1948 film noir fairtyale Secret Beyond the Door. She appeared in films noir directed by other directors as well, including Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach (1947) and  Max Ophüls' The Reckless Moment (1949). In between these films Miss Bennett appeared in such movies as Nob Hill and Colonel Effingham's Raid. In 1950 Joan Bennett's career would change again, as she played the mother in the films Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951).

Sadly, just as William Wanger had helped spur Joan Bennett's career, he would also bring it nearly to a halt. The two had married in 1940.  It was in 1950 that Wanger shot her agent of twelve years, Jennings Lang, claiming that the two were having an affair. Both Lang and Miss Bennett strenuously denied that they had an affair and stated that their relationship was only one of business. Miss Bennett blamed Wanger's actions on stress brought on by their financial woes. Wanger's attorney pleaded temporary insanity and he served a three month sentence at a minimum security prison farm. Unfortunately, the damage was done and Miss Bennett's career would never be the same.

Increasingly, Joan Bennett's appearances were on television. She made her television debut on Nash Airflyte Theatre in 1951. Throughout the decade of the Fifties, she appeared on such shows as General Electric Theatre, Climax, Playhouse 90, and Pursuit. In 1959 she played the mother in the short lived series Too Young to Go Steady. She also appeared often on stage, and toured in such plays as Susan and God, Bell, Book and Candle, Once More With Feeling, The Pleasure of His Company, and Never Too Late.Sadly, her movie career was nearly at non-existent. From 1951 to 1960 she appeared only in Highway Dragnet, We're No Angels, There's Always Tomorrow, and Desire in the Dust.

The Sixties saw Joan Bennett appear both on television and the stage, but in only one film (and that one was linked to a television series). She guest starred on an episode of Mr. Broadeway in 1964 and on Burke's Law in 1965. In 1966 she was cast as matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. In the course of the series she not only played Elizabeth, but three other members of the Collins clan in the show's various time travel story arcs. In the end she was only one of three actors who appeared in the series from its beginning to the end. She also appeared in the feature film aon the series, House of Dark Shadows, released in 1970.

Following Dark Shadows Miss Bennett appeared in the telefilms Gidget Gets Married (1972), The Eyes of Charlie Sand (1972), Suddenly Love (1978), This House Possessed (1981), and Divorce Wars: A Love Story. She guest starred in an episode of the short lived show Dr. Simon Locke. Her last big  screen appearance was in the cult horror film Suspira, released in 1977. She died on December 7, 1990.

Joan Bennett was one of those few classic actors I first encountered not in their movies, but on a television series. That series was Dark Shadows, the Gothic serial that was a phenomenon for a time and the only soap opera I ever loyally watched. Miss Bennett's talents as a dramatic chameleon were put to good use on the show, as she not only played the matriarch of the Collins clan in the Sixties and early Seventies, but other members of the Collins family throughout the ages. Perhaps no other actress could have accomplished this with such finesse. Later I discovered her classic films, Scarlet Street, Man Hunt, Father of the Bride, Little Women, and so on. If I had not known better, it would have been hard to believe that it was the same actress playing those various roles. Indeed, while Joan Bennett's transformation from ingénue to femme fatale to a change in hair colour, I think she could have accomplished it with her natural blonde locks. After all, Miss Bennett was of such talent that she could easily play an innocent one film and a seductress in the next. Few other actresses in the history of film were ever that versatile.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

With the possible exception of the London Metropolitan Police (better known as Scotland Yard) and the Texas Rangers, perhaps no police force is as well known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (often abbreviated RCMP). The Mounties have been heroes in novels, comic books, movies, and TV shows. They have been spoofed in cartoons, parodied on skit comedy shows, and even sang in musicals. Dressed in their distinctive Red Serge, they are arguably the most recognisable police force in the world, even more so than other famous police forces such as Scotland Yard and the Texas Rangers.  The RCMP hve are referred to as both Mounties and as The Horsemen, and as everyone knows, they always get their man.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police emerged as the result of two earlier Canadian police forces. The Dominion Police was created in 1868 following the assassination of journalist, poet, and politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee. In many ways they were the equivalent of the United States' Secret Service. The Dominion Police guarded the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, served as bodyguards for politicians, and even functioned as an intelligence service (they infiltrated the Fenian Brotherhood in Canada). In 1911 they would assume responsibility for guarding the naval yards at Esquimalt and Hallifax, as well as the national fingerprint bureau.  During the First World War they also coordinated the efforts of Canadian security and police agencies to enforce the War Measures Act. The Dominion Police's jurisdiction only extended to the eastern provinces of Canada.

The other, in many ways direct ancestor of the RCMP was the Northwest Mounted Police. The Northwest Mounted Police was founded in 1873 in an effort to tame the Northwest Territories. In the 1870's the Northwest Territories were very much a part of the Wild West. In particular, an illegal whiskey trade had arisen in the Northwest, which not only resulted in violence among he white settlers, but problems with the Native population. The whiskey trade would lead directly to the Cypress Hills massacre, in which wolfers and whiskey  traders, fueled by illegally purchased alcohol, attacked a Nakoda camp, resulting in the deaths of 23 Nakoda and one wolfer. Because of the massacre, Canada moved to form a police force for the Northwest Territories. Originally to be called the Northwest Mounted Rifles, Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald signed the new force into law as the less militaristic sounding "Northwest Mounted Police."

The Northwest Mounted Police was modelled to some degree after the Royal Irish Constabulary, one of the first national police forces. And although a police force, it was organised after British cavalry units, complete with red uniforms. The Red Serge of RCMP originated with the Northwest Mounted Police. The classic red uniform (not actually worn in the field, but worn for ceremonial purposes) was not the only thing the RCMP inherited from the Northwest Mounted Police. The phrase "The Mounties always get their man" originated because of the Northwest Mounted Police. The phrase goes back to a story in the Fort Benton Record (out of Montana) in April 1877, only four years after the police force was formed.

The Northwest Mounted Police was only meant to be temporary, but as time passed it became a permanent fixture. In fact, by 1903 their jurisdiction included the Yukon and extended to the Arctic coast. It was in June 1904 that King Edward VII officially recognised the police force, making them the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. In 1905 their jurisdiction was expanded to include the new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

It was in 1919 that the Canadian Parliament passed legislation by which the Royal Northwest Mounted Police would absorb the Dominion Police to become a national police force. It was then on February 1, 1920 that the two police forces were merged to become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police would be responsible for enforcing federal laws across all of Canada. Throughout the 1930's the RCMP would assume more responsibilities, including including fingerprints, a photograph section, a forensics laboratory, and firearms registration. From the Fifties until the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was created in 1984, the RCMP handled a good deal of Canada's security and intelligence operations.

As mentioned earlier, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police inherited their distinctive red uniform from the Northwest Mounted Police. Contrary to many Hollywood movies and TV shows, however, it must be pointed out that the Red Serge is not worn as part of the Mounties' everyday dress while on duty. Instead the Red Serge is reserved for ceremonial occasions, such as the musical rides (for which the Mounties are well known), ceremonial parades, national and civic ceremonies, and such events as funerals and weddings. The only time while on duty a Horseman might wear the Red Serge is while providing security at a special event. Surprisingly, the famous Stetson, wide and flat brimmed "Mountie hat" for which the RCMP are known was not a part of the original Northwest Mounted Police uniform. Originally the pith helmet, was the official headgear of the Mounted. The pith helmet being impractical for the Canadian West, however, most Mounties wore cowboy hats or the famous Stetson Mountie hat while on duty. Indeed, at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the contingent of Mounties wore the unofficial Stetson rather than the official pith helmet. It was around 1904 that the Stetson was made the official headgear of the Northwest Mounted Police.

As important as both the Northwest Mounted Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been in Canadian history, it should be no surprise that they would figure prominently in Anglophonic pop culture. Indeed, the Mounties would often be the heroes of books, comic strips, movies, and television shows. Indeed, little more than twenty years had passed when short stories and novels featuring the Northwest Mounted Police began to appear. Roger Pocock, who served in the Northwest Mounted Police, wrote one of the earliest short stories to involve the Mounties, "Lean Man," published in 1887. His novel, The Cheeful Blackguard, also centred on the NWMP.

While Popock wrote one of the earliest Mountie stories, it was arguably John Mackie the author who invented Northwestern "Mountie fiction." Mackie had served in the Northwest Mounted Police  from 1888 to 1893, and he used his experiences in his works. Mounties take centre stage or at least occupy a prominent place in such novels by Macke as The Devil's Playground (1894),  Sinners Twain (1895), The Heart of the Prarie (1899), The Prodigal's Brother (1899), The Rising of the Red Man (1904), and Canadian Jack (1913).

Almost concurrently with Mackie's career was that of another writer who included Mounties in some of his stories and novels, although they did not occupy centre stage. Jack London was an American who went to the Klondike during its gold rush. Those experiences would provide fodder for many of his stories and even novels.  Mounties figure in such stories as "To the Man on the Trail (1899)" and "The 'Fuzziness' of Hoockla-Heen (1902)," and the mounted also figure in his novels White Fang and Call of the Wild. Ralph Connor, Bernard W. Sinclair and Gilbert Parker were other writers who wrote early works featuring the Mounties, well before the NWMP gave way to the RCMP.

By the Thirties the Northwestern or Canadian Western was well established as a genre, so much so that there were even pulp magazines dedicated to it. North-West Stories was published from 1925 to 1952 by Fiction House was perhaps the most popular. Its success inspired other Northwestern magazines which featured Mounties as heroes, including Complete Northwest Novel Magazine and Real Northwest Stories. It was not unusual for standard Western pulp magazine, such as Street and Smith's Western Stories, to include stories featuring the NWMP and RCMP.

By the Thirties the Mounties were popular enough to produce multi-media successes. The book Renfrew of the Royal Mounted by Laurie York Erskine was published in 1922. It spawned  successful series of books, ten in all, as well as seventeen short stories Erskine wrote for The American Boy magazine. From 1936 to 1940  there was a Renfrew of the Mounted radio show. Six Renfrew of the Royal Mounted movies were produced between 1937 and 1940, in which Renfrew sang not unlike a singing cowboy. These films were later edited into a television series in 1953, with some additional material added.

Another fictional Mountie would also become a multi-media success. Stephen Slesinger created the character of Dave King of the RCMP, and licensed the Zane Grey byline for King of the Royal Mounted. King of the Royal Mounted debuted on Februay 17, 1935 as a Sunday comic strip. By March 1936 King of the Royal Mounted went daily. The comic strip ran until 1955. In 1936 the first of five Big Little Books was published. From 1937 to 1958  King of the Royal Mounted appeared in various comic books, including his own title from 1952 to 1958. Dave King of the RCMP appeared in the feature film King of the Royal Mounted in 1935, and in the serials King of the Royal Mounted, (1940),The Yukon Patrol (1942), and King of the Mounties (1942).

That King of the Royal Mounted should provide fodder for one feature film and several serials should prove no surprise, as Mounties appeared in the movies even before Mountie fiction had fully coalesced as a genre. The first movie featuring the NWMP was Rider of the Plains, produced in 1910 by the Edison Moving Picture Company. Cameron of the North West Mounted Police, based on Ralph Connor's novel, was an early Canadian film produced in 1912 by film pioneer Ernest Shipman. It proved immensely popular. Another early film about the Mounties was O'Malley of the Mounted, made in 1921 and starring the legendary William S. Hart. The film was remade in 1936 starring George O'Brien in the title role

At the moment Hollywood alone has produced over 200 movies featuring the NWMP or RCMP. For the most part these have been action movies or dramas, such as Cecil B. DeMille's 1940 North West Mounted Police, starring Gary Cooper. Strangely enough, the Mounties have figured in other genres of film. Rose Marie originated as an operetta on Broadway in 1924. It was filmed twice in 1928 alone and again in 1954, although the best known film version remains the 1936 version starring Jeanette MacDonald as Marie and Nelson Eddy as Sgt. Bruce of the Mounties. Sadly, Nelson Eddy singing "Indian Love Call" remains one of the most popular images of the Mounties. Even Shirley Temple appeared in a movie about the NWMP, Susannah of the Mounties, based on the book by Muriel Dennison.

Radio would produced what may have been one of the most successful fictional Mounties. Challenge of the Yukon debuted on the home of radio shows The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, WXYZ in Detroit, on February 3, 1938. The series centred on Sgt. William Preston and his lead sled dog Yukon King in the Yukon of the 1890s. In November 1951 the title of the radio show officially became Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. The radio show ran until June 1955. From 1951 to 1955 Dell Comics published a comic book, entitled Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. A television adaptation of the radio show debuted in 1955 and ran until 1958. There were also trading cards.

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon and Renfrew of the Mounted would not be the only television shows featuring Mounties. Debuting in 1959, R.C.M.P. was a drama centred on the Horsemen that ran for a single season on the CBC, BBC, and the Australian Broadcasting Company. Sadly, it failed in American syndication. A more successful show about a Mountie was Due South.  The series grew out of a telefilm of that title which aired on CTV in Canada and on CBS in the United States. Receiving good ratings in both countries, Due South debuted as a TV series in 1994. It aired from 1994 to 1995, at which point CBS cancelled the still popular series. Making enough of a profit in Canada and the UK to do so, another eighteen episode season was made to air in the 1995-1996 season. After a hiatus of one year, CTV brought Due South back in 1997 for one last, 26 episode season. It aired in syndication in the United States. Centred on a Mountie in Chicago, the show became known for its sensitive handling of characters and remains a cult show to this day.

Portrayed so often in Anglophonic pop culture, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been parodied from time to time. For the most part this has been in animated cartoons, the most famous of which may well be Dudley Do-Right. Well before Dudley made his first ride, there were animated parodies of the Mounties. In 1942 the struggle between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd was transferred to the Canadian North in the short "Fresh Hare," in which Elmer was a Mountie pursuing Bugs. In Tex Avery directed the short  "Northwest Hounded Police," featuring Droopy as a Mountie pursuing Avery's Wolf character.

Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties made its first appearance as a segment of The Bullwinkle Show in 1961. The concept actually dated back to 1948, conceived by Alex Anderson (along with Rocky and Bullwinkle) when Jay Ward was about to enter television animation. The series centred on Dudley Do-Right, a none too bright Mountie who often defeated his archenemy Snidely Whiplash in spite of himself. Although in love with his commanding officer Inspector Fenwick's daughter Nell, she hardly acknowledged Dudley, much preferring his horse named, well, "Horse."

 In all, 38 Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties  were made. The Dudley Do-Right segments were popular enough to be reran as the Saturday morning series The Dudley Do-Right Show in 1969 and later syndicated. In 1999 a live action film based on the carton was released. At least in the States, Dudley Do-Right may be the most famous fictional Mountie of them all.

Dudley Do-Right was not the only Mountie to figure in American animation of the Sixties. Klondike Kat was a segment which debuted in 1963 on Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. Klondike Kat was an anthropomorphic cat and a Mountie who was in constant battle with an anthropomorphic mouse and apparently a Québécois (from his accent anyway) Savoir Faire (whose catchphrase was "Savoir Faire is everywhere!"). Like Dudley Do-Right, Klondike Kat was none too bright, and more often defeated Savoir Faire out of sheer luck. The Klondike Kat segments would reappear on Underdog after that series moved to CBS in 1966. In 1968 when the Underdog segment Go Go Gophers received its own series, Klondike Kat was one of the segments of that show.

The RCMP would also figure in one of the most famous skits from Monty Python's Flying Circus. "The Lumberjack Song" included a chorus of Mounties. The Mounties become confused and disturbed as the lumberjack's lyrics become more, well, outré. In the film ...And Now for Something Completely Different they eventually pelt the lumberjack with rotten eggs.

"The Lumberjack Song" would not be the only song to involve the RCMP. On their self titled debut album,  Blue Öyster Cult included a song entitled "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep," which portrays an outlaw fleeing the RCMP across the frozen north. The band remade the song as "The Red and The Black" on their second album, Tyranny and Mutation. A Native group called North End Connections recorded their song about being pursued by the Mounties entitled "The RCMP Always Chases Me."

This is only a very small sampling of the NWMP and the RCMP in pop culture. As mentioned earlier, Hollywood has made over 200 movies featuring Mounties and the Canadian film industry many more. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have existed for over eighty years now, while the Northwest Mounted Police existed for nearly fifty years before that. In real life they continue to be one of the most famous police forces in the world and an important of Canadian law enforcement. It is safe to say that even more Horsemen will appear in books, movies, and TV shows in the next eighty years.