Other than the fact that Dick Powell sometimes wears the drill sergeant hat that we expect from Royal Canadian Mounted Police and that wasn't adapted into well in the last century, Mrs. Mike is an engrossing drama of the real life work of a member of that acclaimed force. American audiences expect Mounties to have that hat and this was an American made film.
It's a good story, possibly a Canadian production would do it better justice and they sure would get the details right. Still I don't think there's too much cause for complaint.
Powell narrates and stars in this story about a Mountie and his marriage serving in the Northwest Territories at the turn of the last century. Powell is not a relentless pursuer of fugitives nor is he fighting gangs of outlaws or Indians. In fact his main job is looking for people who get lost up in the frozen north. Sometimes he finds them alive and sometimes he doesn't.
To the wilderness Powell has brought Evelyn Keyes who's an American girl from Boston who thinks she's dealt with snow before. The film covers the first years of their marriage as much from her point of view as his. When he's at his headquarters, she's as much a member of the RCMP as he is for all she does.
I guess to make sure people didn't forget he was a singer Powell sang The Rose Of Tralee, the first time he sang on the screen in five years. He's not the piping tenor of his younger days, he's dropped into a semi-baritone in his range.
The climax of the film is a diphtheria epidemic where Powell and Keyes help doctor Will Wright fight the epidemic and it costs them dear.
Mrs. Mike, other than Powell's hat, is a good engrossing drama of the real life of a Mountie and his Missus shot quite realistically at Big Bear Lake in California looking very much like the frozen Northwest Territory. Perhaps a Canadian producer might consider this film as a good candidate for remake.
