North To Alaska (DVD)

John Wayne and Comedy are not 2 words which I would have associated together but in this film he has actually tried to play a comedy role. I hate to admit it but he actually did a decent job!.

Sam, John Wayne and George, Stewart Granger, are best friends who have struck it rich n the gold mines in Alaska. The men return to their town millionaires and now George thinks that it is time to go and fetch his sweetheart Jennie who is waiting ...
...her as George is needed to stay at the mines but when Sam arrives in Seattle he finds that in the 3 years Jennie has been waiting for George she has already married someone else.

Sam makes a hard decision as he meets a French lady in a dancing club and decides that he will take her as a replacement bride for George.

Will George like his new lady or will Sam become too close to her on their long journey back to Alaska?
more

John Wayne and Comedy are not 2 words which I would have associated together but in this film he has actually tried to play a comedy role. I hate to admit it but he actually did a decent job!.

Sam, John Wayne and George, Stewart Granger, are best friends who have struck it rich n the gold mines in Alaska. The men return to their town millionaires and now George thinks that it is time to go and fetch his sweetheart Jennie who is waiting for him is Seattle. Sam offers to go and collect her as George is needed to stay at the mines but when Sam arrives in Seattle he finds that in the 3 years Jennie has been waiting for George she has already married someone else.

Sam makes a hard decision as he meets a French lady in a dancing club and decides that he will take her as a replacement bride for George.

Will George like his new lady or will Sam become too close to her on their long journey back to Alaska?

The storyline to this film really is very simple and basic and I think that helped make it slightly more watch able as it was able to make the humour work and did not make it too complicated. The characters were all very good and I did enjoy watching John Wayne take on a non-cowboy role and I think he managed to make the character very good and likable. I did find it very funny when he would be drinking and ending up having fights just for the fun of it, the fight scenes with him and George were very funny.

Stewart Granger who played the role of George was good and I liked his character a lot. I think I would have liked to have seen more of him during the middle section of the film but we did not and only had the character of Sam. He worked well on screen with both John Wayne and Capucine who played the role of Angel, there was a great chemistry between them all which helped to make the film funny.

There were a lot of supporting actors and actresses in the film and they all did a great job and added to the story and helped to make the film the comedy which it was supposed to have been. One of my favourites was Georges younger brother who was desperate to ‘make friendly’ with a lady! He was a very talented young actor and I did enjoy watching him in this film.

The film was set in Alaska for the main part and I liked the scenery which we were occasionally treated to. The scenery and sets which were used all looked very authentic. The detail which was put into the gold mine shots was good and they all looked authentic for the year that this film was set it. The film was also located in Seattle and I like the difference in these towns which was shown. Seattle was a busy town which had proper brick houses and vehicles which was the complete opposite of Alaska.

The music in the film was not as good as other John Wayne films which I have watched but it was still enjoyable and appropriate for the places which it was used. The costumes and sets were all well made and in keeping with the year this film was set. There were a few effects in this film but they were not very good, for instance when the character Sam was on the ship bringing Angel back to Alaska we could quite easily see that the backdrop had been added at a later date but as this film was made in 1960 I can forgive this.

The running time of this film is 117 minutes which personally I felt to be a good length and the certificate is a Universal which means that this is suitable for all ages and I do agree with this. We bought out DVD many months ago and I cannot remember what we paid for it but I am sure that this will be just a few pounds on places such as Amazon and EBay.

There are no bonus features on this DVD which was no great loss to me as I am not a fan of them anyway.

I am going to recommend this film to all fans of John Wayne or really anyone who just wants to see him in another role other than a Cowboy. This is also a good light-hearted film which is quite funny in places.

 

...less