The Call of the Wild (1975)

Have you ever gotten one of those inexpensive DVD collections of movies? The kind with about 4 DVD's to the box and most of the movies included are just really bad or so bad they make you laugh? In the case of "The Call Of The Wild",it's hard to say which category it falls in of those two. A fair amount of this movie is is just plain dull. In terms of (as someone mentioned) the endless outdoor snow & dog sled scenes. I think there was nearly a half hour of this,or at least it felt like it. The almost non-stop barking of the dogs and just gosh-awful music playing over the scenes, got to be annoying as well.I found the kidnapping of the dog to be completely senseless. It's taken from a California family and I asked myself, "Did they not have pet stores to buy a dog back then?" The dog-napper could have bought a dog and sold it for more.I understand from the beginning that the main character is the German Shepard. Even more so when the ,all too real looking, abusive scenes of animal cruelty are shown. To make it more obvious of the Shepard being the main character, a good idea would have been to get a lesser known actor than Heston. He's always been larger than life on screen no matter what he's been in,so of course,people think that he's the main character.Interseting to see Heston so devoted to the dog and it's well being,much like it's a better friend to him than the humans he knows and hunts for gold with. In reference to those characters,they are the kind I've seen in many films before,more so Westerns. You have the drunken mobs,either in the saloon or the street and of course the big chested female who is the entertainment but pretty much runs the place. She even gives Heston a bath!Then there's the guy who hates the dog and Heston and wants the dog killed because of being (deservedly) bitten by the dog. Heston's buddy talks the man into a wager that if the dog call pull 500 pounds via dog sled,on his own,for 100 yards,then the dog gets to live. Of course the dog pulls it successfully,after the initial struggle.Near the end is a very senseless Indian attack on Heston and his one remaining partner who've finally discovered gold. Killing them both and Heston winds face up underwater.with the dog looking down at him helplessly. The overall point here,is "what's the point of this film?" Maybe if the look and sound were all restored to a better quality I could understand it and enjoy it better? If the acting and direction had not been so bland? Probably not. I can only say that,seeing Heston work with the Shepard , the German Shepard's "acting" and the incredible scene of the thundering,circling herd were the most interesting things shown here. I can,for these 3 things only,give the movie two stars. (END)

Charlton Heston as John plays a prospector along with Raimund Harmstorf . They are at the right time and in the right location to live numerous adventures . The picture chronicles the ¨Gold Rush¨ days of Alaska from Klondike territory and in the Dawson City center . Heston finds and befriends a German shepherd dog called ¨Buck¨ which saves and protects to John and his partner . The dog rescues them from dangers and leads throughout snowy landscapes . But Buck is robbed and is taken by various masters , being forced to pull a snow sled.The movie is based on Jack London novel -in part autobiographic but in his real life was prospector- , narrating the story about the gold discovery , people came to find the precious mineral through the freeze ways and corruption , violence and ambition that came with them . Authentic stars film are the animals as there appear : Huskys , pack of wolves and of course the magnificent German shepherd named Buck . The best of the movie are the marvelous , spectacular snowy outdoors , being stunningly photographed by John Cabrera in places as Finland , Norway and Spain . Atmospheric , evocative score by the Italian composer Carlo Rustichelli . The picture is one of various renditions based on Jack London novels along with ¨ The White Fang ¨ , creating the sub-genre about the Alaska adventures . The film is a European co-production by Harry Alan Towers with actors of several nations ( German as Raimund Harmstorf ; French as Michele Mercier ; English as Maria Rohm ; Spanish as Juan Luis Galiardo , Sancho Gracia and Italian as George Eastman or Luigi Montefiori). Charlton Heston said about this one resulted to be his worst film but I think is entertaining and watchable although mediocre for its poor direction and weak plot which hamper this familiar story .

I had watched this as a kid on Italian TV; like TREASURE ISLAND (1972), it was a holiday favorite and did, in fact, remember the death scene of the Charlton Heston character after all these years! I've only watched the 1935 Clark Gable film (just announced on DVD) once but this one, an international production as opposed to a studio product, results in being the inferior version. As such it's watchable but uninspired, and quite scrappily made; the location shooting, however, is a big plus - as is Carlo Rustichelli's score. Heston is commanding as ever, but the real stars of the picture are the dogs - which are featured in some pretty violent footage for a film based on a children's classic (by Jack London).The rest of the cast is nothing special (George Eastman's villain is especially ludicrous), though both Michele Mercier and Maria Rohm (in yet another film produced by her husband Harry Alan Towers, who also co-wrote under his customary alias Peter Welbeck) are certainly attractive; still, the latter's shrill performance here demonstrates once again that it took a Jess Franco to offer her some worthy, meaty roles (particularly VENUS IN FURS [1968] and EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION [1969])!

***SPOILERS*** At the beginning of the movie we see this handsome and powerful German Shepherd leading a wolf pack as they run down and kill a caribou for their supper. Later looking under the icy river the dog sees his master frozen to death beneath it; The dog's name is Buck the master is John Thornton, Charlton Heston. The story of Buck and how he became the leader of a wolf pack in the Yukon territory starts some time back in the sunny climate of Santa Clara Calif. It's 1897 and gold was discovered around the Klondike River in the Yukon and Alaskan territory's up north and dogs like Buck were worth their weight in gold as sled dogs in that country's deep snows and freezing weather. Dognaped by Judge Miller's, Alfredo Mayo, gardener Manuel for a price of $75.00 Buck was well on his way from being a sweet and loving pet to becoming a strong and ferocious wild animal. Beaten and broken for weeks by a number of different owners of sled-dog teams Buck was almost dead when he was bought and put into the service of John Thorrnton and his partner Pete's, Ralmund Harmstorf, dog team. With John & Pete's kind and tender handling of him Buck became the lead sled dog and the most powerful and at the same time feared dog in the Yukon territory. Buck led the dog team in covering the treacherous 600 mile journey from Skaguay to Dawson as the lead sled-dog for John & Pete in record time when no other dog team and it's owners would dare to try it. In the movie Buck is stolen a number of times from John, and was once almost shot and killed by the local bootlegger, but Buck always managed to escape and return home to John & Pete. It's later that the dog begins to yarn for his home in the wild. The reason Buck didn't go back to the woods, where he developed a strong friendship with the local Timber Wolves in the area, was his love for and loyalty to the persons who saved his life John & Pete. Torn between his two kind and caring human masters and his wolf family Buck can't quite bring himself to break away from civilization to live in the wild. Later one night a band of local Indians attack the cabin where both John & Pete were staying in and ended up killing both of them. Buck and his wolf pack tried to come to their rescue but were too late to save them as we saw in the beginning of the movie. With the two persons who Buck had a mutual bond with now gone Buck can now return to his distant descendants, the wild wolves, in the dark and cold woods of the Klondike. Buck, in th end, ended up answering to something that he understood and that was ingrained in his consciousness from the thousands of generations of canines over millions of years that he eventually evolved from: The Call of the Wild.