The Call of the Wild (1972 film)
Encyclopedia
The Call of the Wild is a 1972 British family
adventure film
directed by Ken Annakin
and starring Charlton Heston
, Michèle Mercier
, Raimund Harmstorf, George Eastman
, and Maria Rohm
.
Based on Jack London's
novel The Call of the Wild
, the film follows the adventures of a dog that is brought north to Canada to be used as a sled dog
.
in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush
is trying to eke out a living in the harsh conditions of the bitterly cold Yukon region
of Canada
, with Buck the German Shepherd dog he befriends. Thornton struggles against unscrupulous rivals and natural hazards in the extreme conditions and is greatly helped by Buck who has his own story to tell: he was abducted from a family home and taken north to become a working sled dog. Man and dog forge a true bond of friendship, working together to survive life in the treacherous frozen North. Thornton is killed by Yeehat Indians, but Buck kills the men back to avenge Thornton. At the end of the film, Buck comes to the White River to mourn the place where he died.
Family film
A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups and, thus, families.In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films. The genre today generates billions of dollars per annum.Family...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
directed by Ken Annakin
Ken Annakin
Kenneth Cooper Annakin, OBE was an English film director.- Biography :Annakin grew up in Beverley, Yorkshire where he attended the local school. He began his career in feature films following an early experience making documentaries. His first filmwork was in 1947 with the Rank Organisation...
and starring Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, Michèle Mercier
Michèle Mercier
Michèle Mercier, is a French actress. In the course of her career she has worked with leading directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli, Mario Bava, Peter Collinson and Ken Annakin...
, Raimund Harmstorf, George Eastman
George Eastman
George Eastman was an American innovator and entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream...
, and Maria Rohm
Maria Rohm
Maria Rohm is an Austrian actress.She is famous for appearing in many exploitation films directed by Jesús Franco in the late 60s. She was married to film producer Harry Alan Towers from 1964 until his death in 2009...
.
Based on Jack London's
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
novel The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events leads to his serving as a sled dog in the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs...
, the film follows the adventures of a dog that is brought north to Canada to be used as a sled dog
Sled dog
Sled dogs, known also as sleigh man dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs, are highly trained types of dogs that are used to pull a dog sled, a wheel-less vehicle on runners also called a sled or sleigh, over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.Sled dogs have become a popular winter recreation...
.
Plot
John Thornton (Charlton Heston) a prospectorProspecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
is trying to eke out a living in the harsh conditions of the bitterly cold Yukon region
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, with Buck the German Shepherd dog he befriends. Thornton struggles against unscrupulous rivals and natural hazards in the extreme conditions and is greatly helped by Buck who has his own story to tell: he was abducted from a family home and taken north to become a working sled dog. Man and dog forge a true bond of friendship, working together to survive life in the treacherous frozen North. Thornton is killed by Yeehat Indians, but Buck kills the men back to avenge Thornton. At the end of the film, Buck comes to the White River to mourn the place where he died.
Cast
- Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
- John Thornton - Michèle MercierMichèle MercierMichèle Mercier, is a French actress. In the course of her career she has worked with leading directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Deray, Dino Risi, Mario Monicelli, Mario Bava, Peter Collinson and Ken Annakin...
- Calliope Laurent - Raimund HarmstorfRaimund HarmstorfRaimund Harmstorf was a German actor. He became famous as the protagonist of a German TV mini series after Jack London's the Sea-Wolf and starred later on successfully in another German TV series after Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff.- Life :Harmstorf was the son of a medic from Hamburg...
- Pete - George EastmanGeorge Eastman (actor)George Eastman is an Italian B-movie actor and screenwriter.Eastman was born in Genoa, Italy. He took his Americanized alias "George Eastman" when he was cast as a "heavy" in many spaghetti westerns made in the late 1960s and early 1970s...
- Black Burton - Maria RohmMaria RohmMaria Rohm is an Austrian actress.She is famous for appearing in many exploitation films directed by Jesús Franco in the late 60s. She was married to film producer Harry Alan Towers from 1964 until his death in 2009...
- Mercedes - Juan Luis GaliardoJuan Luis GaliardoJuan Luis Galiardo is a Spanish television and film actor.-Selected filmography:* Le tre spade di Zorro * The Call of the Wild * Pasodoble * The Girl of Your Dreams * El coronel Macià...
- Seze - Sancho GraciaSancho GraciaSancho Gracia is a Spanish motion picture and television actor.He made his acting debut in France in the 1963 film L'Autre femme opposite Annie Girardot. Since then he has appeared in more than eighty motion pictures including several Hollywood productions during the 1970s and in 1999's Outlaw...
- Taglish Charlie - Friedhelm Lehmann - Charles
- Horst Heuck - Hal
- Rik BattagliaRik BattagliaRik Battaglia is a retired Italian film actor. He was born at Corbola, near Rovigo, Veneto....
- Dutch Harry - Sverre WilbergSverre WilbergSverre Wilberg was a Norwegian actor, perhaps best remembered as the clumsy police superintendent Hermansen, always going after Egon and the rest of Olsenbanden...
- Colonel