North to Alaska

Sam and George have struck gold in Alaska. Things are going well and George makes a decision: he will send for his fiancée from Seattle. He sends Sam. Sam goes and finds the girl; she is already married. Not wanting to come back empty handed he finds a woman and brings her. Angel works in a saloon and accepts the offer. But when they reach Alaska it becomes tangled: George does not want her and Sam changes his mind. Meanwhile a swindler has his eye on their claim and is tampering with the title records. Henry Hathaway directs. John Wayne plays Sam and Stewart Granger plays George; Ernie Kovacs, Fabian and Capucine are in the cast. The song playing over the opening became known in its own right and stayed on the charts for a long time. The production uses the western shape as comedy; the fights are not taken seriously and the violence has no consequences. The large brawl in the mud is its most cited section. The matter it treats is property; the claim and the woman are discussed in the same language, and that is uncomfortable today. It was shot in wide format and colour; the Alaskan landscape was largely recorded outside the studio. Its limit is viewpoint; the woman is handled like an object and the narrative sets no balance against it. Another limit is length; the narrative is long and the middle stretch comes apart. Who it is for: viewers who like classic western comedy and John Wayne. Who it is not for: the depiction of the woman is a problem, the humour dated, and the pace uneven.