John Wayne and Stewart Granger strike it rich in this sprawling, brawling comedy-adventure set in the rowdy heydey of the Alaskan gold rush. When prospectors Sam McCord (Wayne) and George Pratt (Granger) finally hit the mother lode, George asks Sam to go to Seattle and fetch his sweetheart, Jennie, but she’s already married someone else. Heartbroken for his buddy’s sake, Sam visits a saloon, meets dancer (Capucine) and invites her back to Nome as Jennie’s replacement – the plan goes perfectly until Sam falls in love with her too!Even people habitually hostile to John Wayne movies tend to cast an indulgent eye on this rumbustious comedy-Western–partly because the Alaska gold rush setting seems more exotic than, say, Texas or Arizona, and because there are no Indians to discriminate against and no macho gunplay to fret about. As for John Wayne as all-purpose icon of male chauvinism, Big Sam McCord (the Duke) spends much of North to Alaska in a state of growing discombobulation because he has fallen in love with, and is thoroughly flummoxed by, “Angel” (Capucine), the woman he’s brought back from Seattle to marry his heartsick partner George (Stewart Granger). Henry Hathaway directs in a broader vein than usual, but he hits pay dirt. Even Fabian, the latest pop music idol to be dragooned into supporting the elder roughnecks, is fun, and Ernie Kovacs is droll casting as chief “villain.” –Richard T. Jameson
Buy “North to Alaska” For Only $5.65
March 5, 2010
#1
I bought the DVD based on all the positive reviews, and I think prospective buyers should be warned that not everyone finds this a 5-star movie. My husband and I, who love old movies, hated it. My teenagers just found it completely uninteresting. It was apparently made about the time Alaska became a state, although it deals with an earlier time period, and the movie has not aged well. The story was uninteresting, the direction was uneven, the comedy (mostly bar fights) felt forced and awkward. Stewart Granger did not seem to know what he was doing or why his character was there. Fabian’s acting was unmemorable and we felt Capucine was miscast. We got bored and spent half the movie pointing out to each other how little the sandy beaches and desert terrain looked anything like Alaska (it was obviously shot in southern California). I gave it two stars because I was able to sit through the entire thing, but I spent most of it asking myself “why? Why am I wasting my time like this?”
March 5, 2010
#2
I love John Wayne and Stewart Granger
and they are playing wonderful in this
adventure movie, going to Alaska.
March 5, 2010
#3
One of my favorite John Wayne movies. Shows him in ways his other more serious movies don’t. A definite for the John Wayne collector!
March 5, 2010
#4
John Wayne had a knack for making movies that were just fun to watch. This is one of them.
March 5, 2010
#5
I got this videotape when I was preparing for a 5-week RV trip to
Alaska with my 13- and 16-year-old Granddaughters. It was a bit
older, of course, than the contemporary movies they are used to, but for
the purpose they very much enjoyed it. I almost never got them to stop
serenading me with Johnny Horton’s song of the same title.