The Great Adventure (1975)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I've had this in the collection for years, but only realised that it belonged to the ultra-specific Italian sub-genre of "Spaghetti Westerns that take place in Alaska/Canada, and have a dog in them" after the first thirty seconds when the dog 'Buck' is introduced. Basically, its White Fang again. Sigh.Buck is a dog who hangs out with a wolf pack but then gets caught up in human affairs when he hooks up with two kids. After gaining the trust of their father, Buck displays clairvoyant skills by trying to prevent the father heading to Dawson city. The father ignores these preternatural warnings and is swiftly killed by Indians about ten seconds later. Luckily for the kids two kind hearted gold prospectors turn up and everyone heads to Dawson city to avoid the Indians (one of which Buck kills, proving that he's not to be messed with). Unluckily for these prospectors, Jack Palance is the crooked businessman who is in charge of the town, and one dodgy card game later, the older of the two brothers gets the life jabbed out of him.On the good side of Dawson city we have the other brother John, who also gets the green light from singer Joan Collins (her singing is the scariest thing about this film), Irish Barman Charlie, the two kids who start up a newspaper, and some lawyer guy the film forgets about. On the bad side is ugly bastard Jack Palance and his never ending parade of hired killers. I have realised from this film that Joan Collins, in young form at least, resembles my wife, as does Barbara Steele. What does it mean?If you've been unlucky enough to sit through any of these White Fang films, you'll notice that this plot doesn't differ from any of the others. There's the kid who bonds with White Fang I mean Buck (who hilariously ditches the kid at the end!), the crooked businessman who tries to destroy all the good guys, and the macho hero who doesn't really do much at all until the end.

Set during the American Gold Rush era , this is an unforgettable tale of two orphaned children called Jim Chambers (Fernando Romero) and Mary Chambers (Elizabeth Virgil) . When en route to the Yukon being killed their father by Indians , they then become involved into multiple adventures and dangers . Luck changes when the kiddies meet two prospectors : John McKenzie (Manuel De Blas) , and Hank McKenzie (Remo De Angelis , stunt coordinator too) headed for the Yukón and who help them go to Dawson City , next to river Yukón . Meanwhile , Jim meets a wild dog , that is part wolf and they must battle against the Yukon wilderness and human greed to help save a frontier town . As they stood together and changed the destiny of an Entire Frontier . But in Dawson City they meet an arrogant , wealthy owner , William Bates (Jack Palance) , and the beautiful saloon girl Sonia Kendall (Joan Collins) who falls in love for John McKenzie (Manuel De Blas). The prospector John and his faithful mate , the wolf-dog, attempt to stop the evildoer , an ambitious, snarling businessman called Bates who formerly killed his brother .It is a tepid and light-hearted adventure , freely based about known and classic novel by Jack London "The Call of the Wild" . Lumpy blend of adventures, action , villainy , though needlessly violent and aimed to young people . The film is loosely based on the novel by Jack London , though differs significantly from the book but this is an invented version , however remains the essential elements as the young-dog friendship , the gold rush , spectacular outdoors and locations and several moving scenes . The talent of diverse and wasting casting is redeemed in part for the spectacular outdoors filmed on Spanish landscapes . It's a passable/average rendition that maintains the charm and adventure style of the previous films but still makes for decent juvenile amusement . Weak screenplay from Juan Logar , Fonseca and Jesús Rodríguez . Being a Spain-France co-production here appears several Spanish and Italian secondaries , all of them regular in Spaghetti/Paella Western , such as : Manuel De Blas , Ricardo Palacios , José Canalejas , and Remo De Angelis who is an usual masters of arms of lots of Péplum and Western . Other adaptations about these Jack London novels set in Alaska are the followings : ¨Call of the wild ¨ by Ken Annakin with Charlton Heston , ¨White Fang¨ (1991) by Randal Kleiser with Ethan Kawke as young prospector and Klaus Maria Brandauer , and ¨The return of White Fang¨ (1994) by Ken Olin with Scott Bairstow and once again Ethan Hawke . And Italian ones : ¨Lucio Fulci's White Fang¨ with Franco Nero , Virna Lisi and Fernando Rey ; its sequel titled "White Fang to the Rescue" by Tonino Ricci with Maurizio Merli , Henry Silva , Renzo Palmer ; ¨Buck¨ by Tonino Ricci with John Savage and ¨Buck and the magic bracelet¨ by Tonino Ricci with Matt McCoy . Colorful and evocative cinematography by José Aguayo , being recently made a nice remastering , and shot on location in snowy landscapes as Navacerrada and Guadarrama mountains and Daganzo , Madrid . And appropriate , adequate and evocative musical score by Stelvio Cipriani . The motion picture was regularly directed by Gianfranco Baldanello . He was assistant director and subsequently directed some films . Gianfranco made several Spaghettis , such as ¨Uccidete Johnny Ringo¨ , ¨This man cant die¨ , ¨Son of Zorro¨ , ¨The Cry of the Wolf¨, ¨Black Jack¨ and ¨Blood River¨ and ¨30 Winchesters for El Diablo" - International title- or "Gold Train" . And this "The Cry of the Wolf" has a rating : 4.30/10 average .

Thankfully, I had already outgrown films like The Great Adventure by the time it arrived on Anglophone screens. I'm sure lots of younger boys were less fortunate and ended up seeing this feature, which more aptly should have been titled An Awfully Minor Adventure. Young Jim Chambers (Fernando Romer) meets cute with Buck the Wonder Wolf, who saves his life when a pack of less friendly wolves attack the lad somewhere in the snowy wastelands of the Yukon. Jim's father (Attilio Dottesio) wants to put the wounded creature down, but young Jim makes with the mopey face and Dad relents. Soon Dad is dead and Jim and Buck are off on a cross country trek with sister Mary (Elisabetta Virgili) and assorted grownups. Joan Collins and Jack Palance show up in the third reel, both thankfully undubbed, and the film features the motliest imaginable tribe of Native Americans as villainous 'red devils'. Good photography by Jose Aguayo and an excellent Stelvio Cipriani score move The Great Adventure from 'unwatchable' into 'harmless and mildly diverting' territory.

The makers of this bilge should be ashamed. I'll wager Jack Palance's face still turns red when this turkey is brought up in his presence. I would say the same of Joan Collins, but this movie could well be the high point of her pathetic career. The budget couldn't have gone much over a few grand, and most of that was very likely spent on dog food. Come to think of it, dog chow is all any of the cast and crew deserved. The film was constructed entirely of jerky, disconnected scenes chock full of some of the most cornball, juvenile dialogue I've ever had the bad luck of viewing. And the wolf attacks! Why do these adventure shows always have those stupid wolf attacks? At least there were no stupid bear attacks. The story was a familiar one in which an evil scumbag gains control of Dawson City, Alaska during the gold rush days. He hires a gang of toughs to strike fear in the gutless townsfolk by stomping or murdering anyone dumb enough to question his authority. Why didn't some enterprising soul with a good rifle simply pop the ornery tinhorn's chops from a dark alley one night? The sorry creep has a good set-up going until a handsome stranger [who fell in love with the bad guy's "tramp with a heart of gold" saloon girl in about 4 seconds flat] and a couple of kids with a wild German Shepherd [whose bark was strangely like that of a Pomeranian] came to town and upset his apple cart. This bomb opens up whole vistas of opportunity to give new meaning to the term "not worth a tinker's damn". Ten year olds may like this junk, but I have to wonder about even that.