The Great Barrier (film)

• Richard Arlen as Hickey • Lilli Palmer as Lou • Antoinette Cellier as Mary Moody • Barry MacKay as Steve • Roy Emerton as Moody • J. Farrell MacDonald as Major Rogers • Ben Welden as Joe • Jock MacKay as Bates • Ernest Sefton as Magistrate • Henry Victor as Bulldog Kelly • Reginald Barlow as James Hill • Arthur Loft as William Van Horne • Frank McGlynn Sr. as Sir John MacDonald ==Production==

It was one of a series of British Empire-related movies made by Gaumont around this time, others including Rhodes of Africa, The Flying Doctor and Soldiers Three. The film involved 16 weeks location shooting in Canada. Barbara Greene was borrowed from Fox. Location filming finished in June 1936. On 19 May Variety reported production "has been postponed for awhile. Geoffrey Barkis, who was directing, has been replaced by Milton Rosmer, with reason given that Barkis is suffering from a nervous breakdown." ==Reception==

Variety called it "One of the best pictures ever made by a British company, and . ranks With the best made anywhere." Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gives the film a generally good review, describing it as "a thoroughly worthy picture", "well acted, well produced [and] a little less than well written". Greene praised the saloon shindy and horseback race scenes, and commended Palmer's acting, however his primary criticism was that "it shrinks into significance, with its conventional love-story and the impression it leaves that the building of a railway depends on the heroic efforts of one or three men and a girl". ==References==