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Title: Call of the Yukon (1938)
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Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Richard Arlen | ... |
Gaston Rogers
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| Beverly Roberts | ... |
Jean Williams
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| Lyle Talbot | ... |
Hugo Henderson
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| Mala | ... |
Olee John
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Garry Owen | ... |
Conner
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Ivan Miller | ... |
O'Malley
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Billy Dooley | ... |
Watchman
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Al St. John | ... |
Joe
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Swift Lightning | ... |
Swift Lightning
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Firefly | ... |
Firefly the Collie
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Buck | ... |
Buck, The St. Bernard
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Toughie the Bear | ... |
Toughie
(as Toughie)
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Roughie the Bear | ... |
Roughie
(as Roughie)
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Winkey the Talking Raven | ... |
Winkey
(as Winkey)
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Storyline
Utilizing a couple of unusual credits - John T. Coyle as the co-director and "Pre-Production Scenes Directed and Produced by Norman Dawn" - in addition to showing the following animals "credited" below the human cast (showing here to complete the casting order for fans of animal performers, since the IMDb does not give animal credits) the following were given cast credits below the 12th billed Nina Campana; Swift Lightning - half dog & half wolf (13), Firefly, a collie (14), Buck, a St. Bernard (15) (and about the 5th film Buck, from "Call of the Wild", had poster and film credits), Toughie and Roughie, two bear cubs (15 & 16) and Winkey, the Talking raven (17.) The film finds writer Jean Williams coming to a Eskimo settlement, Topek village, in search of material for a novel. The locals fear "Swift Lightning", a half dog-half wolf that leads a vicious wolf pack. To escape the merciless winter and the wolf pack, the entire village leaves on a boat brought there by the local white ... Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
My first thought was "what's with the name?" When I hear "The Yukon," I think of the Yukon Territory, which is in Canada. This was set in Alaska. But then I remembered that a portion of the Yukon River is in Alaska, so I'll grant that one. Still, what we have here is a very, very bad movie.
It looks grainy and cheap. Maybe it's grainy because of age, but that doesn't explain the cheap part - and lots of movies made in the 1930's have stood up very, very well. This one doesn't. The acting is dull and lifeless for the most part, and really for a significant chunk of the film,. this seems more interested in being a cutesy animal film, with a talking crow and bear cubs playing, with a musical score that more often than not really didn't seem appropriate to what was supposed to be a 1930's version of an action-adventure.
The story revolves around Jean and Gaston (Beverly Roberts and Richard Arlen) trying to find their way out of the Alaskan wilderness and having to deal with a pack of wild dogs while doing so. Meanwhile, a domestic collie named Firefly becomes a mate to the leader of the wild pack. The story of the dogs really parallelled what became the point of the last 20 minutes or so of the film, as Jean is forced to choose between the rough and tumble Gaston and the civilized and cultured Hugo (Lyle Talbot) - because Firefly has to choose between life as a wild dog and life with humans. OK. That was pretty obvious once Gaston and Hugo got into their fight over Jean. But that one point that worked really can't do anything to save this. It truly is a dreadful movie. (1/10)