This set was aimed at children, and so it seems a good idea to close the week by speaking of "Mounties" in popular culture.
The first film I have tracked down is "Border River", released in 1919 It starred Evelyn Brent and Ben Hendricks Jr. as a brother and sister caught up in smuggling and bootleg liquor, who are apprehended by a "Mountie", though sadly the person who played him seems not to have been recorded.
The film led to several other "Mountie" features in the 1920s. First of all was one with William S. Hart, forsaking his cowboy garb for once, to play [Sergeant[ "O`Malley of the Mounted". Like that film, most dealt with a "Mountie" infiltrating a gang to find a miscreant and bring them to justice. Between 1921 and 1929 no fewer than eleven films trod this path, some bringing in inclement weather, and maidens in peril of Native American attack, or alternatively featuring a character who is made to join the force to atone for some misdeed, and finds not only redemption but a better way of life. Early in the 1930s, a reversal of this idea found Buck Jones as "McKenna of the Mounted", a "Mountie" gone bad, embroiled and in debt to gambling, who becomes a highway robber, and even attempts to steal from his ex girl`s family, though I expect it all turns out okay in the end.
The 1930s saw the force appearing in a musical "Rose Marie" (1936), being joined by Shirley Temple as "Susannah of the Mounties" in 1939, and being made the brunt of several jokes by the Crazy Gang in "The Frozen Limits" (also 1939). There were also many films following the former, familiar themes from the 1920s. And they continued to be made right through the Second World War, bringing in the Japanese and the Germans. In 1943, even Errol Flynn was a "Mountie", in "Northern Pursuit", assigned with capturing an important member of the Luftwaffe, who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Canada.
That was the last film for a while, until 1946, when Tex Avery made "Northwest Hounded Police", starring "Droopy" as Sergeant McPoodle, charged with capturing the wolf, who had escaped from Alka-Fizz prison.
In the mid 1950s, you can tell that television is making inroads, and in 1954 "Gunfighters of the Northwest" was the last "Mountie" film of the traditional form. That starred Jock Mahoney (aka The Range Rider) and Clayton Moore (aka The Lone Ranger). They did make a come back in the 1980s and 1990s, but usually involving aliens and/or excessive violence.
Instead, the old ways went to television, and to "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon", based on a radio show called "Challenge of the Yukon", which had started way back in 1938. The television version starred Richard Simmons, and it only ended in 1958.
It was replaced by "R.C.M.P.", which also, amazingly, used actual cases as the background for some of the shows, including some which were on the unsolved list. That lasted until 1960, but though popular with many it suffered from the fact that the American networks consistently wanted to add more guns and violence and the writers wanted to follow the true nature of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where such things happen seldom.
After that there were no actual tv shows with a "Mountie" as the hero. The closest was "McCloud", who would very occasionally wander up north of the border and get involved in their cases. That lasted until 1977.
After another brief hiatus, along came a very popular series called "Due South", which ran for six years, between 1994 and 1999 and starred Paul Gross as the "Mountie", who comes to Chicago to try and track the killers of his father and teams up with a local policeman played by David Marciano. It was a mixture of comedy and sadness, and it certainly was popular. Then it all ended, with our hero returning to Canada - though, pleasingly, it ends on a cliff hanger, from where it was hoped to continue. Though, sadly, that never took place.
Our cards seem to be related to the British screening of the television series "R.C.M.P." and there were other spinoffs too including a children`s book. In addition we know that though the series was Canadian it was a co-pro with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the British broadcasting Commision. One of the writers was also Vincent Tilsley, of the BBC. And it was shown on the BBC, from July 1960, but only for one season, just short of forty episodes. And our set was issued in that same year.
The set appears in our original British Trade Index part two, RB.27, published in 1969, as :
- "MOUNTIES". Package design, about 70 x 37 when cut. Red and blue. Nd. (22). No album ... PRI-10
Our updated volume, printed in 2000, alters this slightly, to
- "MOUNTIES". 1960. 70 x 45, uncut. Packets, for Sweet Cigarettes. Red and blue. Nd. (22). No album ... PRI-250
Though dotted lines were printed on the packets, to aid cutting, these were not always followed very well, for this was a product aimed at children, whose skill with scissors leave a lot to be desired; that was if they did not just tear the card off, because it was actually the entire back section of the packet, with the side edges of the card to the top and bottom of the packet, and the top and bottom of the card being joined to the rest of the packet.
By the way, on one side of that packet it gives the ingredients - "Sugar, Corn Syrup, Corn Starch, Hardened Palm Kernel Oil, Gelatine, Certified Artificial Flavours and Colours".