The Wild North (1952)

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting in this movie is really good.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

An adventure movie from the early 50s, with dazzling locations set (according to the data) in the Grand Teton Mountains of Wyoming. Stewart Granger is a French trapper. If the producers knew what "grand tetons" meant in French, well, no movie would ever be made there. One of the locations is Jenny Lake in the National Park. I like Jenny Lake. I caught several cut throat trout there. I'm only adding that note because I knew you were dying to know.Buckskin-clad Granger visits the town to enjoy himself. He picks up a saloon girl, Cyd Charisse, a half-breed Chippewa, and takes her to the mountains in his canoe, as who wouldn't, along with an ugly and duplicitous roughneck whom Granger accidentally kills. Constable Wendell Corey is ordered by Segeant Preston of the RCMP to dogsled up into the snow-veined Rockies and bring back his man. Corey does find Granger and they begin their trek towards civilization but the journey is frought with every hazard that the thought of the untamed north Canadian woods brings to mind -- avalanches, wolves, rapids. Cyd Charisse has little to do. Her hair style is ill suited and makeup has turned her face and the face of all the other Indians purple. The Chippewa lived nowhere near Alberta's Peace River but no matter. Granger is the boistrous, hard living frontiersman, expansive, always cheerful and never overly sentimental. As the RCMP constable, Corey is his opposite. Quiet, deliberate in his movements, determined -- oozing unction and morality. Surprisingly, Corey does all right in what could have been an extremely pedestrian role.Overall, the film is typical of adventure movies of the period. Kind of fun, shot in alluring settings, and sometimes positively exciting.

This colorful picture is set in the North wildness , in the Canadian mountains, , and specifically at the treacherous jungle of ice plenty of wild wolf attack , wild avalanche and a fight for life against fury of claws and fangs . A man called Jules Vincent (Stewart Granger) and an Indian woman (Cyd Charysse) hide from the world and join their love in the heart of the wilderness . There takes place a killing and Jules escapes being pursued by a merciless mounted police officer . As the trapper goes on the run accused of a crime and is pursued by a rugged and determined lawman . Both of whom will take on death struggle with a pack of wolves , thundering terror of the avalanche , wild rapids and many other things .This exciting film deals with a Wild Love Story in the Wild North and contains adventures , thrills , an enjoyable romance and colorful outdoors well filmed by cameraman Robert Surtees who photographs splendidly the snowbound scenarios . It is nonetheless a little failed , being necessary a right remastering . Plenty of a Hollywood all-star cast as Stewart Granger, Cyd Charysse , and Wendell Corey ; however ordinary script complications muddle the tale . It was also Stewart Granger's first western , the fore-runner of many in the later stages of his career such as ¨Gun Glory¨ ¨North to Alaska¨ , ¨ The last hunt¨and ¨Old Surehand¨ saga . Cold and ills affected the crew and actors but they surprised for her resistance . Interesting though sometimes boring screenplay by Frank Fenton , an expert Western screenwriter who wrote successes such as ¨Ride Vaquero¨, ¨Escape from Fort Bravo¨ , ¨River of no return¨, ¨Garden of evil¨ and ¨The Jayhawkers¨. Special mention to musical score by the classical Bronislau Kaper , a great composer expert on impressive atmosphere in Noir cinema and epic films . Filmed on location in exciting color , all grandeur of the wilderness captured in breathtaking Ansco color ; in fact , this was MGM's first movie in Ansco color , a brilliant process which they developed themselves . The new technical coped specifically well with the impressive scenery filmed on location in Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, and Idaho , USA .The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrew Marton , though with no originality and some moments result to be a little tiring . The Budapest-born Marton came to Hollywood with the great Ernest Lubitsch in 1923 . Director Andrew Marton likes lots of big , noisy explosions , when he doesn't know what else to do . Andrew was noted for the quality of his action images in such films as ¨King Salomon's mines¨, a noteworthy movie in several respects . Marton was a specialist on Wartime movies as : ¨The thin red line¨ , ¨The longest day ¨and adventure movies as ¨African Texas style¨, ¨Around the world under the sea¨, ¨Clarence , the cross-eyed lion¨, ¨Green fire¨ a film hardly distinguished on itself , and ¨King Salomon's mines¨(1950) co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unit , he then was tasked with replacing Compton Bennett as director after the latter had been taken ill . One of his more prestigious assignments came about by chance to lay in some excellent work as second-unit director , notably in charge of the chariot race for William Wyler's ¨Ben-Hur¨ (1959), as well as of the Normandy invasion sequences for the World War II . After his contract with MGM expired in 1954, Marton founded his own production company in conjunction with fellow Hungarian émigrés Ivan Tors and Laslo Benedek . He later concentrated on TV adventure series, helming the pilots, respectively for "Daktari" (1966) and "Cowboy in Africa" .

I am surprised that no videos or DVDs have been made of this movie. Certainly one of the best Stewart Granger movies I have ever seen (second only to Scaramouche).

I have not seen this movie in a long,long,long time.However I can not ever forget it! The beautiful Canadian Rockies,where I believe it was filmed was breath taking!The scene where Wendell Corey and Stewart Granger are camping and have to avoid wolves is as exciting moment as any adventure film I've ever scene! My congratulations to Director Andrew Marton (1952) for making a 48 year old,want to see it again!In a time of action movies,with far out special effects,sex,profanity and plots that seem to run together with next months movies,this one has suspence that is believable and yes with a beautiful Cyd Charisse!