O Canada Blogathon: Dudley Do-Right and Canadian Manhood

This is my contribution to the O Canada! Blogathon hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings. Click here for more wonder from the Great White North.

English men are charming, 

Italians romantics, 

And Latins can sway you

with their amorous antics.

But Canadians are stalwart and

Prolific of chin.

Their backbones are upright and

and they are free of all sin.

They love with a pure heart,

Their fidelity a bounty,

And none is so pure

As the Canadian Mountie.

Yes, those Mounties. They are not suave, or sophisticated and they can't drape a gal in diamonds on their salary, but boy are they loyal. And none was more loyal than that Mountie Deluxe, Dudley Do-Right.

Dudley Do-Right was handsome, thick as a plank, well-meaning and hopelessly in love with Nell Fenwick, the daughter of Dudley's boss, Inspector Fenwick. Dudley's love was true, but Nell, like most adolescent girls, held more affection for Dudley's horse, Horse. Dudley was usually kept busy rescuing Nell from the clutches of the evil Snidely Wiplash (voiced by that old smoothie, Hans Conreid). Snidely seemed a lot smarter than Dudley, but he was no match for the intellectual prowess of Horse. Plus, his karma was probably bad.

Okay, I know this was a cartoon, but each episode played like a mini silent movie melodrama. Created by Jay Ward and shown during the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, Dudley was the virtuous pale male, Nell the damsel in distress and Snidely the dark villain who twirled his mustache, tied women to train tracks, threw widows and orphans out of their homes when the mortgage wasn't paid and peered over his shoulder wrapper in a sinister black cape. All of this was set to the sound of a lone, melodramatic piano. No wonder I love silent films.

The Perils of Pauline showed Jay Ward how to depict a damsel in distress

So, Dudley do-Right was my vision of the Canadian Mountie:

No - not that one, this one!

Thank you, Canada, for a man so straight and true!