Drylanders (1962)

Wissenswertes

• Gedreht in: Saskatchewan

Drylanders is a 1963 Canadian Western film directed by Don Haldane and Written by M. Charles Cohen and starring Frances Hyland and James B. Douglas. It was the National Film Board of Canada's first English-language feature film and its earliest entry outside of the documentary format.

Production

Charles Cohen was sent to Saskatchewan by the National Film Board of Canada in the 1950s about the possibility of making a film about farming and irrigation. He proposed three half-hour television documentaries, but the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation rejected it. The NFB proposed a one-hour documentary, but the CBC rejected it again. Don Haldane was selected to direct and he suggested making it a fictional film. Cohen rewrote the film.

The film was shot in widescreen 35mm. It was shot in black and white and used SuperScope, the first time it was used by the NFB, to reduce costs. Stage actors with limited television work were hired and smaller roles were played by locals. Filming started in Swift Current in summer 1961, and the blizzard scene was filmed in at a NFB studio in Montreal in winter 1962. It cost $211,479, twice the planned amount, to make the film.

Drylanders was a fictionalized documentary similar to earlier French-language productions from the NFB's Panoramique series and dramas in the English-language Perspective series. Heavily promoted during its release, the film was modestly successful at the box office.

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