Salmon fishermen in Alaska vie for dominance using both fair means and foul. Rivalry intensifies as two of the leaders compete for the same girl.
Well-mounted Paramount production. No locations are cited by IMDb, suggesting the Alaskan background resulted from a studio tank, stock shots, and process photography. If so, the effect is very well done. I guess you could call this a "he-man" picture —it's Ryan at his rangiest, Keith at his brawniest, with plenty of action in the last half. But look how they've dolled-up Sterling. Her Nicky is very respectable looking, and a distance from Sterling's usual cheap, sassy blonde. Naturally the boys fight over her, which is not surprising since I think she's the only woman appearing on screen.
Unfortunately, Ryan sacrifices his unique talent for tortured sensitivity to the needs of an action picture. Frankly, his is a "wobbly compass" role a hundred less talented actors could have done. Too bad too that real-life eccentric Timothy Carey (Wycoff) had yet to show his riveting brand of menace on screen. That would emerge in Kubrick's 1956 classic The Killing. Also, can't help noticing blacklisted screenwriter Dan Mainwaring (Invasion of the Body Snatchers {1956}) had a hand here. I expect the notion of a collectively owned cooperative as a solution to cut-throat competition was his idea.
All in all, it's an entertaining film, mainly for guys. But I have to admit that even as a big salmon eater, I was disturbed by stock footage of masses of salmon struggling to stay alive inside the massive nets. I guess that says something about the adage of it being better not to know where your food comes from.
