Review by ma-cortes

"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 .