The Winter Snows are Coming!

That's a common fear in the Yukon, but people are going crazy for 'a pich of the yellow stuff' in "Call of the Wild." I streamed this movie from Netflix, was settling down in my bed, expecting the same caliber of film as "The Tall Men." I was immediately excited that it was in black and white (1935). I don't know why it didn't click that, because this movie was made exactly 20 years before Tall Men, Clark Gable woud look a considerable amout younger. When he entered on screen, very slim, very dressed up, and very scruffy, I literally jumped up toward the computer screen for a closer look and thought "That's Clark Gable?!" It was the difference from this to this:

He played the same character, except this time there was snow to think of, dogs to mush, and gold to find. He knew everything about the Alaskan wilderness, just like he knew everything about the wild west. He was also flanked with a sidekick similar to the one in Tall Men. The love story was a bit more complicated in this one: woman who lost her husband on the trail, then said husband shows up after Gable and woman are in love. Throughout the entire movie Gable and "Mrs. Blake" keep referring to the metaphor of the 'Yukon Law'-whatever you need, you take, even if it's from someone else. She doesn't think this is very fair, whether the law concerns food or people's former wives, but falls in love with him anyway. And I mean, come on, you're in an abandoned shack mining for gold with 1935 Clark Gable and he keeps staring at you....I don't blame you. Her husband shows up and she does the right thing: leaves with him, promising Gable they will see each other. But the movie ends with Gable's sidekick coming back for him.


All in all, it was a good flick; the dialogue is still what drives all of these movies because they didn't have much in the area of special effects. I think I'm going to come up with some sort of 'scoring' chart-you know, akin to 5 stars or something.