The Great Barrier (film)

The Great Barrier is a 1937 British historical drama film directed by Milton Rosmer and Geoffrey Barkas and starring Richard Arlen, Lilli Palmer and Antoinette Cellier. The film depicts the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was based on the 1935 novel The Great Divide by Alan Sullivan. It was made at the Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton.

Cast

 * 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.

Reception
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".