***SPOILERS*** Broke after losing all his money in a crap game Seattle gold prospector Jack Thornton, Clark Gable, is just about to hitch the next train back home until he runs into fellow prospector "Shorty" Holliham, Jack Oakie, at the local Klondike saloon.
Having been caught opening the US Mail, that he got six months in the can for, "Shorty" found a letter with a map detailing where the mother of all mother gold loads can be found which he mistakingly ate but became, in that the map went straight into his brain not stomach, part of his permanent memory. With nothing to lose and everything to gain both Jack and "Shorty" went to get all the equipment, mostly on credit, they'd need to find the mother load including a sled dog team. It's when Jack outbid the villainous Smith, Reginald Owens, for lead sled dog Buck, played by himself, that things really started crackin' in the Klondike for him and "Shorty".
Buck who in the novel "Call of the Wild" was in fact a husky/wolf mix yet in the movie was a pure bread 120 pound Saint Bernard who was twice as big as any sled dog and five times as strong. This made it far easier for Buck with his heavy fur coat to survive the cold winds and snows in the upper Yukon where the hidden gold mine, with its mother load, was located! It was up around the uncharted Dawson Creek that Jack "Shorty" and Buck found Claire Blake, Loretta Young, alone and being attacked by a wolf pack who they ended up rescuing. As things turned out it was the letter that "Shorty" opened that was mailed to Clair by her husband John Blake, Frank Conroy, which pinpointed where the mother load, or gold mine, was located!
Now having Clair on their hands and being the gentlemen that they are in not wanting to cheat her out of what was rightfully her's as well as Clair's now missing husband, in the wilds of the Yukon, gold mine they make Clair a partner in the quest of the mother load of all mother loads. That's until Smith, remember him, and his gang of murderous gold thieves show up and things start really to heat up in the cold cold Klondik.
**SPOILERS**** There's also the unexpected appearances of the lost and considered dead and buried in the snow John Blake, Clair's husband, to make things in the movie even more complicated then they already were. The most complicated and confusing thing about Blake's sudden and mysterious appearance is why in hell he would hook up with Smith and his motley gang of cut throats who are out to steal his gold mine! If in fact Blake had any brains in his head he would have known that they would off him as soon as he lead them to his uncharted and fully stocked, with the yellow stuff, gold mine!
Despite an all-star cast, Gable Young & Oakie-as well as being packed with beautiful location scenery footage the 1935 version of "Call of the Wild" doesn't come close to the later and far better 1972 version of the movie with Charlton Heston. In fact the real star of the film that was based on the Jack London novel the hybrid husky/wolf Buck was barley in the movie and his attraction to the wild wolves was never fully explained! Unlike in the London novel and the 1972 version of the movie Buck seemed to be, in being a full bread Saint Bernard, fully domesticated with absolutely no wolf characteristics, or blood, in him at all!
P.S It came out years later that Clark Gable and his cost-star in the film Loretta Young were more then just acting in the love scenes they had together in the film. This resulted in Loretta Young getting pregnant by Gable and having a child out of wedlock by him which wasn't revealed until she, actress Judy Lewis, was well into her 40's and both her natural parents long deceased.
Having been caught opening the US Mail, that he got six months in the can for, "Shorty" found a letter with a map detailing where the mother of all mother gold loads can be found which he mistakingly ate but became, in that the map went straight into his brain not stomach, part of his permanent memory. With nothing to lose and everything to gain both Jack and "Shorty" went to get all the equipment, mostly on credit, they'd need to find the mother load including a sled dog team. It's when Jack outbid the villainous Smith, Reginald Owens, for lead sled dog Buck, played by himself, that things really started crackin' in the Klondike for him and "Shorty".
Buck who in the novel "Call of the Wild" was in fact a husky/wolf mix yet in the movie was a pure bread 120 pound Saint Bernard who was twice as big as any sled dog and five times as strong. This made it far easier for Buck with his heavy fur coat to survive the cold winds and snows in the upper Yukon where the hidden gold mine, with its mother load, was located! It was up around the uncharted Dawson Creek that Jack "Shorty" and Buck found Claire Blake, Loretta Young, alone and being attacked by a wolf pack who they ended up rescuing. As things turned out it was the letter that "Shorty" opened that was mailed to Clair by her husband John Blake, Frank Conroy, which pinpointed where the mother load, or gold mine, was located!
Now having Clair on their hands and being the gentlemen that they are in not wanting to cheat her out of what was rightfully her's as well as Clair's now missing husband, in the wilds of the Yukon, gold mine they make Clair a partner in the quest of the mother load of all mother loads. That's until Smith, remember him, and his gang of murderous gold thieves show up and things start really to heat up in the cold cold Klondik.
**SPOILERS**** There's also the unexpected appearances of the lost and considered dead and buried in the snow John Blake, Clair's husband, to make things in the movie even more complicated then they already were. The most complicated and confusing thing about Blake's sudden and mysterious appearance is why in hell he would hook up with Smith and his motley gang of cut throats who are out to steal his gold mine! If in fact Blake had any brains in his head he would have known that they would off him as soon as he lead them to his uncharted and fully stocked, with the yellow stuff, gold mine!
Despite an all-star cast, Gable Young & Oakie-as well as being packed with beautiful location scenery footage the 1935 version of "Call of the Wild" doesn't come close to the later and far better 1972 version of the movie with Charlton Heston. In fact the real star of the film that was based on the Jack London novel the hybrid husky/wolf Buck was barley in the movie and his attraction to the wild wolves was never fully explained! Unlike in the London novel and the 1972 version of the movie Buck seemed to be, in being a full bread Saint Bernard, fully domesticated with absolutely no wolf characteristics, or blood, in him at all!
P.S It came out years later that Clark Gable and his cost-star in the film Loretta Young were more then just acting in the love scenes they had together in the film. This resulted in Loretta Young getting pregnant by Gable and having a child out of wedlock by him which wasn't revealed until she, actress Judy Lewis, was well into her 40's and both her natural parents long deceased.