The Wild North

Stewart Granger is a woods wise French Canadian trapper who's killed a man and Wendell Corey is the rookie Mountie sent to bring him back for trial.

Problem is that this is Granger's ballpark they're playing in and it's one long journey back to some semblance of civilization. But strange as it may seem, Corey proves his mettle and a strange respect grows between both men.

Granger and Corey have good chemistry between them, they'd have to or the film would be unwatchable. MGM put in some good action sequences involving wolves attacking their camp and a breathtaking whitewater canoeing challenge.

The Wild North also features good location photography in some rugged regions of Idaho serving as the Canadian northwest. Oh, and there's Cyd Charisse who dances not a step as a beautiful Indian woman with a thing for Granger. Reason enough right there to watch the Wild North.

The Wild North was shot in the Boulder Mts of central Idaho, near Sun Valley Resort. My father, Clayton Stewart, was the resort's contact with MGM and for years helped directors find the right settings for movies. I can take you to the exact locations of the outdoor scenes, some of which were: along upper Big Wood River not far from Russian John Forest Service Ranger Station; along Big Wood near where the North Fork comes into the main channel; along the front of the Boulder Mountains near where Baker Creek comes in, and near Boulder Creek; up Trail Creek above Trail Creek Cabin; and on Galena Summit. Sun Valley resort supplied the trained dog teams and sleds. I was a girl when the movie was shot, and when the Sun Valley portion of the film was finished, Stewart Granger gave me the snowshoes he had used in the film, which I still have. I also have a set of black and white photos taken by Dad during the filming. This is an exciting adventure movie with a breathtaking setting and some great wilderness action.

TCM just showed The Wild North today, in a version that had closed captioning added and looked as if it was digitally remastered since its last broadcast on TCM some years ago. Maybe Time-Warner will finally release the DVD of the movie in the near future. MGM in the early fifties turned out a series of high quality star vehicles, which were taken for granted then. With its small cast, The Wild North is like another movie of the period, The Naked Spur, which also deals with bringing a prisoner in. The Wild North has fine location photography in Idaho, a script that moves along and even some photographic effects courtesy of A. Arnold Gillespie. By 1956, with the forced sale of its Loew's theaters, the firing of Dore Schary as head of production and the end of contract system for studio talent, MGM went into a slow death spiral. There would be no more studio pictures like The Wild North, as MGM cut its output and filled a big chunk of its slate of releases with independent productions and movies made overseas. But at least I now have The Wild North on DVD, recorded from today's broadcast, as a souvenir from a vanished era in Hollywood history.

This colorful picture is set in the North wildness , in the Canadian mountains, , and specifically at the treacherous jungle of ice plenty of wild wolf attack , wild avalanche and a fight for life against fury of claws and fangs . A man called Jules Vincent (Stewart Granger) and an Indian woman (Cyd Charysse) hide from the world and join their love in the heart of the wilderness . There takes place a killing and Jules escapes being pursued by a merciless mounted police officer . As the trapper goes on the run accused of a crime and is pursued by a rugged and determined lawman . Both of whom will take on death struggle with a pack of wolves , thundering terror of the avalanche , wild rapids and many other things .

This exciting film deals with a Wild Love Story in the Wild North and contains adventures , thrills , an enjoyable romance and colorful outdoors well filmed by cameraman Robert Surtees who photographs splendidly the snowbound scenarios . It is nonetheless a little failed , being necessary a right remastering . Plenty of a Hollywood all-star cast as Stewart Granger, Cyd Charysse , and Wendell Corey ; however ordinary script complications muddle the tale . It was also Stewart Granger's first western , the fore-runner of many in the later stages of his career such as ¨Gun Glory¨ ¨North to Alaska¨ , ¨ The last hunt¨and ¨Old Surehand¨ saga . Cold and ills affected the crew and actors but they surprised for her resistance . Interesting though sometimes boring screenplay by Frank Fenton , an expert Western screenwriter who wrote successes such as ¨Ride Vaquero¨, ¨Escape from Fort Bravo¨ , ¨River of no return¨, ¨Garden of evil¨ and ¨The Jayhawkers¨. Special mention to musical score by the classical Bronislau Kaper , a great composer expert on impressive atmosphere in Noir cinema and epic films . Filmed on location in exciting color , all grandeur of the wilderness captured in breathtaking Ansco color ; in fact , this was MGM's first movie in Ansco color , a brilliant process which they developed themselves . The new technical coped specifically well with the impressive scenery filmed on location in Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, and Idaho , USA .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrew Marton , though with no originality and some moments result to be a little tiring . The Budapest-born Marton came to Hollywood with the great Ernest Lubitsch in 1923 . Director Andrew Marton likes lots of big , noisy explosions , when he doesn't know what else to do . Andrew was noted for the quality of his action images in such films as ¨King Salomon's mines¨, a noteworthy movie in several respects . Marton was a specialist on Wartime movies as : ¨The thin red line¨ , ¨The longest day ¨and adventure movies as ¨African Texas style¨, ¨Around the world under the sea¨, ¨Clarence , the cross-eyed lion¨, ¨Green fire¨ a film hardly distinguished on itself , and ¨King Salomon's mines¨(1950) co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unit , he then was tasked with replacing Compton Bennett as director after the latter had been taken ill . One of his more prestigious assignments came about by chance to lay in some excellent work as second-unit director , notably in charge of the chariot race for William Wyler's ¨Ben-Hur¨ (1959), as well as of the Normandy invasion sequences for the World War II . After his contract with MGM expired in 1954, Marton founded his own production company in conjunction with fellow Hungarian émigrés Ivan Tors and Laslo Benedek . He later concentrated on TV adventure series, helming the pilots, respectively for "Daktari" (1966) and "Cowboy in Africa" .

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).