Northwest Passage (1940)

Northwest Passage, also billed as Northwest Passage (Book 1: Rogers' Rangers), is a 1940 American Western film in Technicolor, directed by King Vidor. It stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan and Ruth Hussey. The film is set in 1759, and tells a partly fictionalized version of the real-life St. Francis Raid by Rogers' Rangers, led by Robert Rogers (played by Tracy) on the primarily Abenaki village of St. Francis, in modern-day Canada. The screenplay, by Laurence Stallings and Talbot Jennings, is based on the 1937 historical novel Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts.

Roberts' novel is split into two parts, referred to as "Book 1" and "Book 2". The film, which is based entirely on Book 1, makes significant changes in the story (including a "happy ending") that so displeased Roberts that he vowed not to sell film rights to any more of his books. There was originally discussion about filming a sequel that would cover Book 2, but this did not happen. Although the book and the movie are named for Rogers' quest to find a Northwest Passage through North America, those events take place in Book 2, and are only briefly mentioned in the film.