Gefährten des Grauens

I am surprised that no videos or DVDs have been made of this movie. Certainly one of the best Stewart Granger movies I have ever seen (second only to Scaramouche).

What awesome scenary provides the setting for this classic 1950's formulated drama! Solid performances by all actors.

It does seem like a scene vanished from the Turner classic version that I was watching. The jump in the film between scenes early in the movie seemed out of place. And, once you discovered a certain event had occured it seemed unlikely that this important scene was on the cutting room floor.

An adventures movie which predates some aspects of "river of no return" (Mitchum rebuilding a family with Monroe and a young son) by three years; the underlying subjects is the necessity for man to find himself a family : that's the trapper realizes when the film begins; a thing that the duty-above -all Javert-like longs for all along the story (he admits he's got nobody ,and he envies his prisoner who's got somebody waiting for him,were she a half-breed in a shack )

This adventures movie is at least as much a psychological drama : the events (the wolves,the meeting with two lost men) take a back seat to Granger/Corey relationship , a strange love /hate relationship ,a mutual admiration and a cat and mouse play:but who's the cat ? The pictures on location are splendid indeed and this odyssey looks like an initiatory journey ,mainly for the mountie.

Like Marilyn Monroe in "river of no return ", Cyd Charisse is a chanteuse in the first sequence ;and there's also a brat ,who,although no part of the family ,sides with the trapper who urges the shopkeeper to give him chocolate.

I first saw The Wild North when I was just fresh back from Korea in 1953. I was so impressed by the story and the scenery that I returned to the little movie theater down the block to see it three more times before it was replaced on the bill. The action is terrific and the scene where the wolves attack Wendell Corey and Stewart Granger makes your heart pound. The setting is breath taking and the ending is perfect. The Movie makers paid great attention to detail, right down to the Tea Cartons and the Tobacco packages. I loved it. If they ever release it again, I'll see it for the fifth time.

I first saw this movie in 1952 at a theater in Chattanooga tenn when it first was released. It mesmerized me then and has done the same 10 to 20 times I have seen it since. It has a reality to it that is totally lacking in most hollywood films. And maybe the main reason its to my liking is Steward Granger. He was the narrator of the books on tape title ( call of the wild ) and he made the experience infinitely more enjoyable and exciting for me . Thanks ,my name is barney and I am 68 yrs. I hope ted Turner will release this title to dvd or vhs at some point from his film library.