Contemporary reviewers gave this one the thumbs down, but it's not nearly as "tedious" or "uneventful" or "dull" as Eugene Archer (of the New York Times) and company made out back in June, 1961. Admittedly, the opening patriotic plug, "This Is Canada!", is a bit off-putting. But after this low point, the scenery and CinemaScope make up for a lot. There's also a striking performance from Jack Creley, a TV actor (1952 through 1990) who made only a dozen movies of which this is the first. In fact, all the players, led by Robert Ryan (who never gave an indifferent performance in his life), John Dehner, Torin Thatcher, John Sutton and Michael Pate are excellent. I was also surprised that the London-based reviewer for Variety complained about the photography which he alleged was "fuzzy" and looked like "16mm film
blown up". My guess is that he saw an uncorrected preview copy. The print I saw was beautiful. This was the first of only three movies made by the Metropolitan Opera's superb soprano, Teresa Stratas, who made many TV appearances from 1970 through 2010.
Review of The Canadians
