Il ritorno di Zanna Bianca

Ok, so I had no idea this is a sequel. And therefor I cannot say anything about the first White Fang movie. I also have to admit, I did not know Lucio Fulci did sequels ... that also surprises me a little bit. But then again I am not a scholar of his, so ... if you are and this offends you, it is not meant to and I apologize.

Away from what we know or didn't, the movie is quite the adventure, with the dog being in the middle of it. Most of the time quite literally. I love how he is being used ... or rather how he drives the story. Animal lovers rejoice ... somewhat. Well made thriller with a lot of humor in it.

I've been trying to come up with a catchy opening statement on CHALLENGE TO WHITE FANG for over a week now and give up. These are quite simply some of the strangest movies ever made. Who was the intended audience? Just like with his earlier WHITE FANG (1973), with the same basic cast & crew, Lucio Fulci has cooked up a populist entertainment that's way too violent for the kiddies and a bit to cutesy for adults, when people aren't being tortured and burned alive that is. While missing the nudity & sex of an exploitation film these are hardly all-age adventures, at least in their unedited forms.

Both of Fulci's White Fang films were part of a mini-fad that was one of the variants Italian film producers tried to squeeze some life out of their spaghetti western industry. There were maybe a dozen of these things made between 1973 and 1977 or so -- Alpine adventures set in the gold rush era Klondike with plucky kids and an intelligent, resourceful wolfhound as the star of the film. They usually bring in a ringer for an action hero (Merizio Merli, Ron Ely, Doug McClure or in this case, Franco Nero, wearing what appears to be one of Farrah Fawcett's old fur coats) and a stock trade bad guy (Jack Palance, Henry Silva, or John Steiner as we have here) and come up with all sorts of fascinating adventures for the dog to have while the humans stand around cheering him on.

Hence the confusion that these were for kids. Kids love dogs and the films always have a young boy for the hound to bond with, maybe a pretty nun or some other female lead for the dads to quietly lust over, though romance with the action hero is out of the question. So you'd think this would be fun for the whole family until the town drunk is beaten senseless, the hapless Indian family is murdered in cold blood, and the child terrorized by big greasy bad guys who get a kick out of torturing cripples. The bullets fly, the bodies pile up, and White Fang gets to do clever things like figure out that someone is cheating at poker.

If there are any saving graces to this outing it is that White Fang is not forced to fight any other animals for the benefit of the camera, though he does get chased around, kicked, beaten with ax handles and thrown out of burning buildings. We can only hope that they asked the dog to sign a release form first. He's also depicted as fighting off a golden eagle that attacks the plucky young boy for some reason that I missed taking wildlife biology, leading to one of the most bizarre gore effects sequences ever staged where the doggie performer is festooned with a truly twisted zombie makeup effect to have it appear as though the bird scratched his eyes out. I imagine that was one of the parts cut from the prints imported to North America in the 1970s.

The film culminates in a preposterous dog sled race finale that took a few cues from BEN HUR with the two sled riders battling it out as they hurtle across the wilderness. The credits here cite Canada as one of the filming locations but I don't know, somehow I doubt they would have imported the whole cast & crew from Europe just to film a movie about a kid and his dog. WHITE FANG was filmed in Austria and I'd say that looks like the same town set, but it really doesn't matter. The whole thing is marvelously fake and tacky, which is half of the fun of this little sub-genre of spaghetti westerns. I think they are fascinating and this is probably one of the better examples with no apparent harm coming to the animal performers for once. The people, though, boy they get battered around some. Looks like it was a tough, physical shoot under adverse conditions. It's a marvel the film was even made at all, and I dare say you couldn't come up with anything like it today.

6/10

"Challenge to White Fang" or "Il Ritorno di Zanna Bianca" (original title) is an exciting adventure set in Alaska during Gold Rush . The wolf dog , White Fang, aids a little boy , an elderly man , a nun, of ridding a gold mining town of a sleazy crime lord in 1899 Yukón , Canada . Set at the end of the 19th century in Canada's gold rush Klondike area . There come all kinds of adventurers , good guys and bad guys . One of them results to be the ambitious Beauty Smith . Wolf-dog White Fang teams up with an old mountain man and a boy when his master , a young Eskimo , is killed . Together they try to avenge his death . This adventure movie is set at the end 19th Century , in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada . It has as starring the wolf-dog named White Fang , as when his master is killed by the evil , unscrupulous Beauty Smith (John Steiner), then the trusty dog is adopted by a young boy , Bill (Renato Cestie) , the grandson of fur trader named John Tarwater (Harry Carey J. , usual actor in John Ford films) . Meanwhile , the grandfather , an old man named John Tarwater and his grandson arrive to the small gold town and befriend Jason Scott . After that , the dog teams up the avenger prospector Scott (Franco Nero) and his friend Kurt Jansen (Raimund Harmstorf) , who seek revenge against the notorious villain Beauty Smith . But Beauty changes his identity posing as a wealthy bound-wheelchair and now living under the alias Forth in another Northern Canada town , claiming a recently discovered gold mine and exploiting the villagers . There also appears Sister Evangelina (Virna Lisi) who's attempting to build a new mission hospital in the small town . A bit later on , Evangelina shows proof of his criminal past to the Canadian Mounted Police , and she subsequently has her mission burned down . The prospector and his faithful mate , the wolf-dog, attempt to stop the evildoer , the ambitious , snarling businessman called Smith and his hoodlums . A dying old prospector bequeaths his newly discovered gold-mine to John Tarwater , but the mean businessman tries to claim it for himself . As Smith/Charles Forth is blackmailing prospectors and deceiving of faking manner to the natives by means of stealing them supplies and the Alaskan gold mines and to profit from townspeople .

This follow-up to ¨Lucio Fulci's White Fang ¨(with Franco Nero , Virna Lisi , Fernando Rey , John Steiner , Rik Battaglia , Daniel Martin and Carole André) is a tepid and light-hearted adventure about known and classic novel by Jack London . Here the famous dog teams up once again with novelist Jason Scott , Franco Nero , and his colleague Kurt Jansen , Raimund Harmstorf who has a brief intervention , to detain the nasty Beauty Smith . Lumpy blend of adventures, action , villainy, though needlessly violent and aimed to young people . The film is loosely based on the novel by Jack London , though differs significantly from the book but this is an invented version , however remains the essential elements as the young-dog friendship , the gold rush , spectacular outdoors and locations and several moving scenes . The talent of diverse and wasting casting is redeemed in part for the spectacular outdoors filmed on Austrian landscapes . It's a passable sequel that maintains the charm and adventure style of the previous film but still makes for decent juvenile amusement . Breathtaking final scenes when take place some impressive sledge races across the tundra . Weak screenplay from Alberto Silvestri , Lucio Fulci and Roberto Gianviti who also wrote in similar similar style to former movie . Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Carlo Rustichelli who also composed ¨White Fang¨ . The film is rated PG-13 (Parents guide), because contains some violent scenes about killing of a boy at the beginning , a cruel fighting between eagle and dog , a strong slap against a kid , people hitting to ¨White Fang¨ and brutal biting , among others . The motion picture was regularly directed by Lucio Fulci , an expert filmmaker of terror movies full of blood and gore . It was followed by an acceptable sequel : "White Fang to the Rescue" (1974) by Tonino Ricci , who in previous film was director assistant , with Maurizio Merli , Henry Silva , Renzo Palmer, Benito Stefanelli and Donald O'Brien .

Other films about dogs inspired by Jack London novels are the followings : ¨Call of the wild ¨ by Ken Annakin with Charlton Heston , ¨White Fang¨ (1991) by Randal Kleiser with Ethan Kawke as young prospector and Klaus Maria Brandauer , and ¨The return of White Fang¨ (1994) by Ken Olin with Scott Bairstow and once again Ethan Hawke . And "The Cry of the Wolf" by Gianfranco Baldanello with Joan Collins , Jack Palance , Manuel De Blas , ¨Buck¨ by Tonino Ricci with John Savage and ¨Buck and the magic bracelet ¨ by Tonino Ricci with Matt McCoy .