Call of the Wild

source: Call of the Wild

Back in the day, I'm sure audiences flocked to see Call of the Wild to see top stars of the day, Clark Gable and Loretta Young, in a film together. Nowadays, it's pretty much remembered as the movie that resulted in a secret love child that's no longer secret. In case you're not up on your silver screen trivia, the morally judgmental, notoriously prudish Loretta Young (who also had an affair with the married Spencer Tracy) had an affair with Clark Gable that resulted in a child. Rather than tell him, she did the classic "go to Europe for a few months and come back with an adopted child" scheme that belongs more in a melodrama rather than in real life. After that story, who cares what Call of the Wild is about! For those of you who do care, it's loosely based off Jack London's novel. Clark Gable and Jack Oakie are trappers searching for gold in Alaska, and Clark wins a dog in a poker game. On the way to their next gold-search, they run into Loretta Young and both take a shine to her. Which one do you think she'll pick? Which one did she hide the existence of her child, even though she knew he always wanted a child? Maybe she should have realized she lived in a glass house before forcing her costars to put coins in a "swear jar". . .

This is pretty good, as adaptations go. The author of the story, Jack London, was quite a guy and came up with some gripping adventure stories. In life, he was an oyster pirate in Oakland, a prospector in the Yukon, a correspondent in the Far East, a member of the artist's colony in Carmel, and finally an isolated heroin addict in a house near Napa, dying alone at forty. I haven't read the story since high school but, as a movie, it stands on its own. Clark Gable is the prospector and gambler who fits very well into the north woods. His comic sidekick in Jack Oakie. The dog he wins is Buck, a St. Bernard, who is enormously willful and strong, and is torn between allegiance to his master and "the call of the wild," meaning that out there in the forest is a pack of wolves and one of them is in estrus. Gable has the same problem. He and Oakie manage to rescue a lost damsel, Loretta Young, looking petite and pretty and plump lipped. But she's married and, uh, well, she and Gable obey the call of the wild. They did in real life too. Loretta Young was whisked out of town to bear a daughter. A few years ago, long after the two miscreants had disappeared down the memory hole of everyone but withering old movie buffs, a photo of her appeared in the press. Unfortunately for her, she looked much more like Gable than Young, except no visible mustache. She passed away only a few weeks ago, or I wouldn't have written this. William Wellman directed with his usual dash. It's not long, it's packed with action, and if you pay attention it raises some interesting moral and philosophical questions. Are we really that different from the beasts? How much slippage should we expect to see between nature and culture?

I'm the last person to say, "The movie was OK, but the book was better." The problem here is that other than the title and the name of the dog, there is no connection between the two. While the movie is a decent story involving the Yukon with lots of adventure, the whole plot of the book went by the wayside. Of course, we have two big stars of the early cinema, Clark Gable and Loretta Young, with romance the object, and a big race as the climactic moment. So it has pretty good quality and storytelling. But it is misleading to use the title of the Jack London book. It's like doing a Poe movie called "The Pit and the Pendulum" and having no pit and no pendulum. If I were to evaluate the movie on its own merits, I would say it is about average.

***SPOILERS*** Broke after losing all his money in a crap game Seattle gold prospector Jack Thornton, Clark Gable, is just about to hitch the next train back home until he runs into fellow prospector "Shorty" Holliham, Jack Oakie, at the local Klondike saloon. Having been caught opening the US Mail, that he got six months in the can for, "Shorty" found a letter with a map detailing where the mother of all mother gold loads can be found which he mistakingly ate but became, in that the map went straight into his brain not stomach, part of his permanent memory. With nothing to lose and everything to gain both Jack and "Shorty" went to get all the equipment, mostly on credit, they'd need to find the mother load including a sled dog team. It's when Jack outbid the villainous Smith, Reginald Owens, for lead sled dog Buck, played by himself, that things really started crackin' in the Klondike for him and "Shorty". Buck who in the novel "Call of the Wild" was in fact a husky/wolf mix yet in the movie was a pure bread 120 pound Saint Bernard who was twice as big as any sled dog and five times as strong. This made it far easier for Buck with his heavy fur coat to survive the cold winds and snows in the upper Yukon where the hidden gold mine, with its mother load, was located! It was up around the uncharted Dawson Creek that Jack "Shorty" and Buck found Claire Blake, Loretta Young, alone and being attacked by a wolf pack who they ended up rescuing. As things turned out it was the letter that "Shorty" opened that was mailed to Clair by her husband John Blake, Frank Conroy, which pinpointed where the mother load, or gold mine, was located! Now having Clair on their hands and being the gentlemen that they are in not wanting to cheat her out of what was rightfully her's as well as Clair's now missing husband, in the wilds of the Yukon, gold mine they make Clair a partner in the quest of the mother load of all mother loads. That's until Smith, remember him, and his gang of murderous gold thieves show up and things start really to heat up in the cold cold Klondik. **SPOILERS**** There's also the unexpected appearances of the lost and considered dead and buried in the snow John Blake, Clair's husband, to make things in the movie even more complicated then they already were. The most complicated and confusing thing about Blake's sudden and mysterious appearance is why in hell he would hook up with Smith and his motley gang of cut throats who are out to steal his gold mine! If in fact Blake had any brains in his head he would have known that they would off him as soon as he lead them to his uncharted and fully stocked, with the yellow stuff, gold mine! Despite an all-star cast, Gable Young & Oakie-as well as being packed with beautiful location scenery footage the 1935 version of "Call of the Wild" doesn't come close to the later and far better 1972 version of the movie with Charlton Heston. In fact the real star of the film that was based on the Jack London novel the hybrid husky/wolf Buck was barley in the movie and his attraction to the wild wolves was never fully explained! Unlike in the London novel and the 1972 version of the movie Buck seemed to be, in being a full bread Saint Bernard, fully domesticated with absolutely no wolf characteristics, or blood, in him at all! P.S It came out years later that Clark Gable and his cost-star in the film Loretta Young were more then just acting in the love scenes they had together in the film. This resulted in Loretta Young getting pregnant by Gable and having a child out of wedlock by him which wasn't revealed until she, actress Judy Lewis, was well into her 40's and both her natural parents long deceased.

I'm certainly not writing this review to praise Clark Gable. Loud,adamant,disrespectful to his director, William Wellman,and usually late on the set for this flick, Gable suffered from being overly confident about his slightly-above-average acting ability. His spoiled temperament and tardiness abruptly came to an end one day when Bill Wellman reprimanded him for his egregious disposition, and frankly told him that if he arrived late again on the set the next day, he would be canned immediately. Gable clammed up. He arrived on the set the next day and every day thereafter until the film was finally completed. This incident was verified on a PBS special.

Gable has it all for a short while: easy pickings gold nuggets, a gorgeous girlfriend he found in the wilderness, a half-wild soul mate lead dog and a bashful wisecracking partner. But, his grasp on all of these is slippery, as the plot develops. I don't fault Hollywood for departing so flagrantly from London's story, which too was just a yarn. I found this version much more entertaining and profound, despite the stereotypical boss-sidekick relationship between Gable and Jack Oakie. Gable seems to represent sort of an ideal adventurous entrepreneur: a riverboat gambler at heart, who is willing to take big risks and to work for his fortune when necessary, but who tries to grab all he can and beat out the competition. The chief villain is a stereotypical pretentious cutthroat tycoon: the worst kind of capitalist. In contrast, Gable recognizes certain limits in gaining his fortune and honors his commitments to his partners, be they human or animal. Loretta's creed is yet more tempered: You will get what you want only if you deserve it. See the movie to find out how these various creeds interact to determine the outcome. This is perhaps Gable's most enjoyable role, along with those in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Boom Town". As in most of his best roles, Gable comes across as rakish: part hero, part scoundrel, but never dull. Like Gable, Loretta is at her physical peak at this time, making for a very romantic-looking couple.

Clark Gable meets Loretta Young in this 1930s adaptation of Jack London's The Call of the Wild, which takes place in Alaskan territory. I've never read the book, but I can only imagine that this was probably not very faithful to the novel, due to its emphasis of comic relief by supporting actor Jack Oakie. This is the movie that changed Clark and Loretta's life, as they fell in love during the making of this film, and she went away in private to have his baby - a fact she never told the public. While that may be neither here nor there, in reviewing this film, it's pretty evident that something was going on, by their quiet scenes together, which are very intimate and deep, considering this is a 1930s film. The plot revolves around a map that is needed to find a gold mine. Her husband, yes her husband, was the owner of the map, but Clark and Jack go after the gold mine, with Jack's memory and a rough sketch of it to use. They find Loretta alone, after her husband has been lost in the wilderness looking for help. Reginald Owen is very good and memorable as a nemesis in trying to find the gold mine too, when he learns of it. The production values and performances are solid and deliver the goods, but its corny comic relief mars the film's attempt to hit the mark with viewers, especially with its abrupt ending. I thought the novel was mainly about the dog, but, while the dog, who Clark is attached to, does have some screen time, the film doesn't feel like a dog film. The producers were probably thinking that would alienate some viewers, so they centered on pairing attractive leads Clark and Loretta together and Jack Oakie's one-liners. While I liked the film on the whole for Loretta's loveliness, memorable love scenes between her and Clark, and Reginald Owen's credible contribution to the film, I still feel it misses the mark for a completely fulfilling movie experience.

The beginning of Call of the Wild (a very loose adaptation of Jack London's novel of the same name) is made up of hard to decipher plot set up exposition which I was only able to get my head around until my third viewing; surely there could have been a more interesting and engaging way the film could have delivered all this information to the viewer. Likewise, a scene during the beginning of the film in which Jack Thornton (Gable) returns to his room only to find his love interest (and possible prostitute) Marie (Katherine deMille) having an affair with another man doesn't appear to have any effect on the rest of the plot. According to TCM originally Marie had an earlier scene but this was cut from the original print of the film. After this rather static opening, the film gets rolling and finds one of its emotional cores. Call of the Wild is one of the best dog movies with its complex relationship and emotional bond between Gable and the Saint Bernard named Buck, one majestic looking beast. Buck is a dog that would be of no use to Jack yet is willing to pay $250 to save its life. The image Gable hugging the pooch tells more than words can; truly man's best friend. Arguably the most powerful scene in the film is that of Buck trying to pull 1,000 pounds as the result of a bet. You couldn't ask for a more powerful and barbaric display of willpower knowing if he doesn't succeed his life will be taken. The dog in the film appears to be legitimately struggling regards the weight it is actually carrying in real life. Much of the scenes in Call of the Wild featuring dogs would never make it to screen today due to the unethical treatment of animals which is more than apparent on screen. Near the beginning of the film two dogs fight each other on screen and uncut which today would ether to edited to create the illusion of a fight or with horribly unconvincing CGI. Likewise, the general handling of the dogs and even the use of an actual rabbit as bait for dogs to hunt creates a gritty and brutal realism on screen which could not be replicated today. Reginald Owen is the show stealer as Mr. Smith, the posh, sinister English gentleman with a sick vendetta against a dog; those ridiculous magnified eyes give him the look of a madman. Likewise, Jack Oakie as Shorty comes off to me as an uncowardly version of the Cowardly lion, even down to that laugh. Shorty was killed off in the original cut of the film, as evident from the foreshadowing of his dice turning up snake eyes after Gable throws them to him. The new ending in which Shorty and Jack are reunited prevents the film from being darker in vein like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It took me a long time to get the appeal of Loretta Young but I gradually came to see her immense likeability, partially in due to those gazing, soulful eyes. In Call of the Wild her makeup is applied flawlessly despite being stuck in the freezing cold wilderness but she's still she's a tough cookie who can lecture Gable on a thing or two. I love a good man and woman alone in the wilderness film in which their chemistry fully shines through and the process of falling in love happens organically which in this instance may have been aided by Gable and Young's affair they had during the production which bore a child named Judy. In a moment of art imitating life Shorty even says; "You know I know a couple of people who used to fool around like that and they got children now". I like this sub-genre of the northern western, a refreshing alternative to the mundanity I can often experience in traditional westerns. This is aided by the extensive use of location shooting present in Call of the Wild with those beautiful mountains, silhouetted trees and all that gleaming white snow - I don't believe there could be a better natural light reflector than the white stuff.

Call of the Wild, The (1935) **** (out of 4) Incredible film has Clark Gable going to look for a gold mine only to cross paths with Loretta Young. As the adventure begins the two quickly fall in love. This is one of the greatest pictures I've seen that no one really talks about. Great action, great adventure, great drama, great laughs, great romance and overall just one hell of a film. Gable is wonderful in showing all his tough side but the film also allows him to be quite gentle, especially in the scenes with the dog. The beauty of Young shines through nicely as she delivers another very good performance. Wellman and Gable would have a falling out on this film and wouldn't work together again until Across the Wide Missouri.