North to Alaska (1960)

“Where the river is winding, big nuggets they're finding – North to Alaska, go North the rush is on” Theme song

Quite an interesting movie for John Wayne and one that he plays for comedy with a good amount of flair but the supporting cast is only so-so and Wayne’s jokes are not quite enough to bring this into the best of his work.

One of the best parts is the opening credits with the famous song performed by Johnny Horton getting you into a toe-tapping mood right at the beginning. It’s sad that the film never quite reaches the pitch established by those opening few minutes though.

The movie is about a pair of gold prospectors in 1900 Alaska who strike it rich. The two prospectors are played by John Wayne (Big Sam) and Stewart Granger (George) and yes Fabian (George’s brother Billy) just like the song says.

The mine is going good and George needs to go to Seattle to get supplies and George wants him to bring his fiancée back but when Wayne looks her up, she is already married so he goes to the local bordello and talks French hooker Michelle (Capucine) to go up to Nome with him as sort of a consolation bride for George. This part, and every thing else about the movie has nothing to do with the song.

With the language barrier, Michelle had thought she was going up to be with Sam and quite a bit of comedy comes of the misunderstandings that causes.

Meanwhile claim jumpers have attacked the mine and Capucine stays in Nome and Sam goes to fight them. The three men Sam, George, and Billy all fall for the one woman and some comedy is made of the misunderstandings between them as they alternately try to woo and fight over her. Ernie Kovacs gets to play a dastardly villain, too.

The script was the weak part of North to Alaska and the first director Richard Fleisher vamoosed when 20th Century Fox failed to provide one. They then hired Henry Hathaway to direct and he kept writers turning out pages each day as he filmed. The result is the situations are few and the lapses between are long. The supporting cast really doesn’t get a lot of good dialog like they do in a typical Wayne movie so it is just an overlong, half cooked production. Fabian and Capucine are quite weak in their characterizations and that’s probably why they didn’t get many more parts. Even Ernie Kovacs, who is a comedian and usually funny, didn’t make many laughs;

The best part of the film, other than the theme song, are the interactions between John Wayne and Stewart Granger, who are both solid actors and they make the best out of the poorly written parts.

The Fox DVD is presented in color, in 2.35:1 theatrical format, with a running time of a longish 122 minutes. There is a newsreel and the theatrical trailer and subtitles as extras.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV