Hard to rate this thing on anything other than a funny reminder of
how Canada was and will always be renowned for Mounties,
snow, and wildlife. The scandalous "nude scene" where Nell Shipman is bathing
under a waterfall is what gave this film an audience, but definitely
not why it's still around today. It's actually a decent story where the
spirit of a dead Eskimo is incarnated into a husky, but that angle
doesn't really have any significance until the end of the film when
it's revisited. Most surprisingly, I found, was how progressive of a role Nell had
way back in 1919. She drives the plot and essentially rescues
herself from a lot of the danger, something Hollywood is still
reluctant to do. It wasn't actually the first feature film made in Canada
("Evangeline" was in 1913), but it's the earliest one left that has
been preserved. If for no other reason, you gotta check it our just
for that!
how Canada was and will always be renowned for Mounties,
snow, and wildlife. The scandalous "nude scene" where Nell Shipman is bathing
under a waterfall is what gave this film an audience, but definitely
not why it's still around today. It's actually a decent story where the
spirit of a dead Eskimo is incarnated into a husky, but that angle
doesn't really have any significance until the end of the film when
it's revisited. Most surprisingly, I found, was how progressive of a role Nell had
way back in 1919. She drives the plot and essentially rescues
herself from a lot of the danger, something Hollywood is still
reluctant to do. It wasn't actually the first feature film made in Canada
("Evangeline" was in 1913), but it's the earliest one left that has
been preserved. If for no other reason, you gotta check it our just
for that!