Just perfect...

hyped garbage

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Released in 1960 and directed by Henry Hathaway, "North to Alaska" chronicles events during the Nome Gold Rush in 1900 where a prospector (Stewart Granger) sends his associate (Seattle) to Seattle to bring up his fiancée, but it turns out she's married and so he brings back a dubious substitute from a dance hall (Capucine). Fabian plays the prospector's kid brother who naturally becomes infatuated by the lovely new visitor to their wilderness mining claim. Ernie Kovacs is on hand as a shifty businessman.This is part dramatic Western, part farce and part romantic comedy, yet somehow it magically meshes into a splendid time for the viewer. It starts out on a questionable note with the dreadful title song and a slapstick saloon brawl, but immediately following this the story captures your attention and you find yourself entering into the world of the characters.The protagonists are likable and you do sympathize with Angel's plight (Capucine), hoping she'll eventually hook up with so-and-so. One amusing sequence is when she's alone in the wilderness cabin with the kid where he instantly falls in lust with her. And who can blame him? The forest festival in the first act is also good, particularly the thrilling pole (tree) climbing contest. To be expected, there are also a couple of action shootouts. The movie's similar in tone to 1963's McLintock!" but more compelling and overall entertaining.The film runs 122 minutes and was shot in California (Inyo National Forest, Big Bear Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Point Mugu & Alabama Hills) and Yukon, Canada.GRADE: A-

This was a great story and great movie. I saw this back when I was a kid and again the other night.I couldn't help but fall in love with Capucine, she's wonderful in this and she was a fabulous Actress. She appears in the Pink Panther Movie. Her beauty is second to none. John Wayne, Fabian, and Stuart Granger are also really great in this. Great Direction, it was also filmed so that you think the characters are really in Nome, and great cinematography. The Director Hathaway also did True Grit and Son's of Katy Elder. There is no relation to the actress Anne (Hathaway).Fabian is notably really funny, he turned out to be a pretty good actor in other movies as well.The script was reportedly turned down by another director but I thought the script was really well done for this action, romantic comedy.I really believed the chemistry between Capucine and John Wayne although with a beauty like that it's hard not to have any chemistry with everyone she would meet, including William Holden whom she reportedly had an affair with in the 80's. She committed suicide reportedly over health problems in 1990. Chemistry between the leads is so important in the believability of films.I give this movie 8 out of 10 stars.

Henry Hathaway is one of Hollywood's most experience and distinguished directors but for me personally this simply did not work.Both the storyline itself (is okay) and the cast cannot really be faulted. Both Wayne and Granger's body of work speaks for itself. Capucine plays the female lead well and even Fabian as the interest for younger people does what is required. However I have never felt comfortable with John Wayne as a "romantic lead" (and clearly neither had he) but the storyline does (quite cleverly) take that into account. Even Granger's attempt at an American accent is okay (certainly to my British ears and nowhere near the Dick van Dyke region). The highlight however was Ernie Kovacs who for me, stole the show and acted Wayne, Granger and Capucine off the park in every scene and had he not been killed so young, would surely have gone onto to become one of the finest film/TV comedians that America had ever produced.But...The whole is not good.Maybe, it's because I am now looking at this 50 years on from when it was made or maybe because I have watched too many how-they-made-the- movies type TV shows or done one too many "studio tours" but I thought it was clunky.Clearly Hathaway wanted to create a light-hearted atmosphere and does this reasonably well. However the fight scenes are laughable for all the wrong reasons. We can almost see the strings as the barrels roll, windows fall out, and stunt men fall over. In fact this was so poor that I was more grateful for the man who invented the fast-forward button than the man who gave us True Grit!Much of it seemed to be directed at the level of a silent movie and ironically immediately after watching this, I turned the TV channel over and watched a documentary on the birth of Hollywood which was much better!As for the music, It would be churlish to complain about a western featuring the female lead singing a song in a saloon (and indeed it is almost obligatory) but the Fabian solo felt forced and only included because the actor could sing rather than any addition to the plot.It could have been so much better but wasn't a complete waste of my time and reasonably enjoyable but not one I would rush to watch again. For that reason I can only give it 4 out 10 although will give another one for the wonderful Mr Kovacs!

John Wayne and Stewart Granger should have done more comedies. In NORTH TO ALASKA the two veterans play freewheeling partners in a gold mine in 1901 Alaska. The action shifts from Alaska to Seattle and back, although it is pretty apparent the whole thing was shot in California. Wayne goes to Seattle to take care of some business and looks up Granger's love, who has married someone else in Granger's absence. Wayne then meets Capucine, as a saloon gal (aka hooker) and decides she'll do just as well for his lovesick partner. Complications ensue when Capucine falls for Wayne instead. Beginning in the late 1940s, Wayne was often paired with a young actor, and in this case that role is filled by Fabian as Granger's kid brother. The lighthearted mood of the film is established within minutes of the opening, with a huge and lengthy barroom brawl replete with zany sound effects and outrageous mugging by all. I was never fond of Hollywood's decision in the 1950s and '60s to cast foreign actresses in leading lady roles. Sophia Loren could get away with it; Capucine (and many others like her) could not. I did not buy her for one minute as Wayne's love interest here. She's way too refined to be playing a prostitute, and her acting is stilted. Unfortunately, she was the producer's gal pal at the time. Anyhow, Wayne was in pretty good shape in 1960, and he and Granger (and to some lesser extent Fabian) keep things rocking and rolling. They are 1901's answer to The Three Stooges. Ernie Kovacs plays the film's nominal villain, a sleazy saloon owner and claim jumper. As always in a Wayne film, the cast is dotted with several old familiar aces, including John Qualen, Joe Sawyer and Kathleen Freeman.