Passions in the frozen north
Three years after 20th Century Fox made a great film from Jack London's Call Of The Wild, Republic made this pale imitation of another story of passions in the frozen north in Call Of The Yukon. Jack London set a mighty high standard in these kinds of adventure novels which this one really did not meet cinematically.
Richard Arlen plays a rugged trapper who like several of the Inuit is fleeing the country as a pack of wolves has pretty much devastated the wild game around there. Not because of the lack of game to trap, but because those wolves are ready to feast on some human meat if hungry enough. Not ready to flee is Beverly Roberts who's a novelist looking for solitude to write her next book which she's decided will be a story in that locale. Arlen packs her along unwillingly and he's most unwilling to take along a menagerie that consists of her talking bird, two bear cubs and a collie who is grieving for his master.
Without getting too much into the particulars there is a human and animal story played out at the same time. That collie develops a yen for the leader of the wolf pack, a half dog half wolf. Despite the attentions later on of a fine St. Bernard. That St. Bernard belongs to Lyle Talbot who is the sweetheart of Roberts who has come up to rescue her himself. I'm not spilling how the human or the animal passions play out here.
Some interesting sequences of the frozen north worked into this film, but it's a B Republic feature so what might have been a good film from one of the big studios is just a routine programmer from Republic.
It has potential, but too bad Jack London wasn't the screenwriter.
Richard Arlen plays a rugged trapper who like several of the Inuit is fleeing the country as a pack of wolves has pretty much devastated the wild game around there. Not because of the lack of game to trap, but because those wolves are ready to feast on some human meat if hungry enough. Not ready to flee is Beverly Roberts who's a novelist looking for solitude to write her next book which she's decided will be a story in that locale. Arlen packs her along unwillingly and he's most unwilling to take along a menagerie that consists of her talking bird, two bear cubs and a collie who is grieving for his master.
Without getting too much into the particulars there is a human and animal story played out at the same time. That collie develops a yen for the leader of the wolf pack, a half dog half wolf. Despite the attentions later on of a fine St. Bernard. That St. Bernard belongs to Lyle Talbot who is the sweetheart of Roberts who has come up to rescue her himself. I'm not spilling how the human or the animal passions play out here.
Some interesting sequences of the frozen north worked into this film, but it's a B Republic feature so what might have been a good film from one of the big studios is just a routine programmer from Republic.
It has potential, but too bad Jack London wasn't the screenwriter.
- bkoganbing
- Jun 4, 2014