TV Review: Northwest Passage
This 1958 television series is set during the French & Indian War (1756-1763). A Colonial militia named Roger’s Rangers battle the perfidious French and their Native American allies in what later became upstate New York and Quebec. Both this series and the 1940 movie were based on a 1937 novel. (The title comes from an expedition to find an open water route to the Pacific that takes place in the second half of the novel.) I saw several episodes on a Mill Creek DVD.
This was one of the first shows on American television to be broadcast in full color and one can see that the kinks were still being worked out from time to time.
As this is a US-produced show, the part the English Army played in the war is downplayed. The British soldiers merely maintain the fort the intrepid American troops headquarter in between missions. There’s some period racism, but it’s not over or under-played. The stories are exciting, and Buddy Ebsen is good as Hunk Marinner, an uneducated but not stupid backwoodsman.
Trigger Warning: The episode “War Sign” opens with a father whipping his young son with a switch. This is not depicted as a good thing, and at the end of the story, the father breaks the switch.
Since the French and Indian War tends to get downplayed in American history courses, overshadowed by the American Revolution about a decade later, it might be worth looking up this series for history-curious young people and their parents.
