Richiamo del Nord

A great movie based on an excellent book.. John Murdock started as an itinerant cowboy throughout the West, but begins to settle down when he meets and marries Sally. She puts up with his wandering until they start for, but never reach the goldfields. Several great supporting characters enliven the plot as time and experience go on. The closing episodes make a fitting end to John's wanderlust. The setting in the Pacific Northwest and Canada/Alaska coastal country just adds on to all the other elements of the film.

The movie is clean and entertaining and well worth watching---IF you can find it!

Henry Fonda quits his job. No, he tells his boss, he's not going to work for a competitor. When he hears the Wild Geese Calling he has to follow them. In this case, it's to Seattle, where he's to meet Warren William. However, once in Seattle and while waiting for William to show up, he meets dancehall girl Joan Bennett. They fall in love, William shows up with Barton Maclane close behind him with a shotgun, and it's off to Alaska for the gold rush, with Bennett along.

What Fonda doesn't know is that Miss Bennett is an old girlfriend of William.... but Maclane does. That's what this movie's conflicts are about: the past versus the present, truth versus lies, loves versus wanderlust. The excellent cast does pretty well in this potboiler directed by John Brahm, although Maclane is curiously out of touch with his lines. Still, there's lots of other interesting performers to look at, including Iris Adrian, Russell Simpson, and Stanley Andrews, and you can always look at Lucien Ballard's shots of the open sky around Lake Arrowhead. It's pretty much a potboiler, but with a cast and crew that make it work.

... otherwise he'd be down on the beach in a hole in the sand with a barrel over his head, never wondering if this is a good plan for a human being.

John Murdock (Henry Fonda) is a 1890s lumberjack who gets wanderlust by watching "wild geese calling" as they fly past in formation. He goes to Seattle looking for his old pal and partner in wanderlust, Blackie (Warren William) but finds he's moved on. He meets and marries a dance hall girl, Sally (Joan Bennett). Then Blackie returns and convinces John to go with him to Alaska to start a fishing business. That's not hard since John starts hearing those "wild geese calling" once again. Sally doesn't want to go because she had hoped to use the money they saved on a homestead not a boat. But she also doesn't like being around Blackie because they were once an item and she's afraid John would not understand if he found out about this past relationship. She'd be right.

Henry Fonda is playing a most unlikeable character here. Without evidence he believes his wife is making a fool out of him. With evidence John doesn't catch on that Blackie is using his wanderlust to get his own way. I really liked Warren William as the nuanced cad Blackie. William had been in some really bad films after the production code began, and although this was definitely a supporting role it was a meaty one.

Note that this film is a bit of a production code buster, as you have shots of a man and wife sleeping in the same bed. But then twin beds in wild Alaska pioneer days would have looked silly. There is also a murderer who goes unpunished, although who that murderer was is made deliberately unclear. So kudos to whoever is responsible for running circles around the censors. It was a breath of fresh air.

Wild Geese Calling is one of those films that Henry Fonda made for 20th Century Fox after he was hammer-locked into signing a studio contract with them in order to get cast in The Grapes Of Wrath. It's not a bad action/adventure film about a man who marries the former girlfriend of his best friend.

Best friend Warren William is the best thing about Wild Geese Calling. He's one charming rogue who loves them and leaves them in every city from San Francisco to Nome in the Pacific Northwest. But these women apparently never think ill of him. Whatever his secret if he could bottle and sell it he'd be richer than Donald Trump.

One of those girls he loved and left is Joan Bennett and it's she that Fonda marries. Both William and Fonda are infected by the wanderlust thing, it's always going to be a better opportunity over the next horizon. The title in fact refers to the flight of the wild geese which seems to inspire them. Ironically those 'wild geese' follow strict flight patterns and are hardly nomads. But the symbolism is there, rather heavy handedly emphasized with shots of wild geese flying interspersed in the story.

Fonda and Bennett follow William to Alaska where Fonda learns two things first about Bennett's former relationship and secondly that Bennett is quite pregnant.

Some of the shots with Fonda going out in the winter storms to get a doctor are nicely done. I think that Darryl Zanuck might have recycled some of the footage from Way Down East. No matter, it's well used.

Second best in the cast is Ona Munson who did a bit of recycling of her own with a different take on her famous Belle Watling character from Gone With The Wind. When they can't get a doctor for Bennett, Munson pinch hits and delivers.

Wild Geese Calling is not a bad film. But Henry Fonda in his memoirs makes it abundantly clear he hated all the studio projects from 20th Century Fox he was assigned to until The Oxbow Incident.

Well as soon as i saw this film henry fonda became my favourite actor, he exceeds with this role, playing it better than i imagined.

The plot is about a man who goes on a search for gold, this happens to be my favourite story line. I loved this film, joan bennet who played john murdocks wife as sally also plays a good role. WATCH IT!!