The Trail of '98

Director: Clarence Brown Clarence Brown

Overview

The strange and terrible things that the lust for gold can do to the soul comprise the message of this innovative, epic account of the Alaskan gold rush. Unlike Chaplin's version of the same era story, which combined hardship with comedy and culminated with a happy ending, Clarence Brown's film is disturbing. Though he follows the lives of many prospectors throughout the movie, one story receives extra attention. It is that of a gold miner who finally strikes it rich, suffers terribly to return to his true love and discovers that she has become a tawdry dance-hall girl working for a known murderer. Enraged, the prospector gets into a terrible battle that culminates in a tragic scene -- perhaps designed to make us realize how insignificant we are in the face of nature's ruthless grandeur.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/23/2009
UPC:	0883316149133
Original Release:	1928
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	51,402

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Dolores Del Rio	Berna
Ralph Forbes	Larry
Harry Carey	Jack
Karl Dane	Lars
Tully Marshall	Jim
George Cooper	Samuel
Russell Simpson	Old Swede
Tenen Holtz	Mr. Bulkey
Emily Fitzroy	Mrs. Bulkey
Cesare Gravina	Berna's Grandfather
John Down	Mother's Boy
Ray Gallagher	Actor
Doris Lloyd	Actor
E. Warren	Engineer
Ray Hallor	Actor
William Axt	Composer
David Mendoza	Composer

Technical Credits

Benjamin Glazer

Waldemar Young

Clarence Brown	Director,Producer
Benjamin Glazer	Screenwriter
Waldemar Young	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

The last of the great silent epics, M-G-M's The Trail of '98 comes complete with a music score, sound effects and a theme song, "I Found Gold When I Found You," by Hazel Mooney, Evelyn Lyn and William Axt. Based on Robert William Service's 1911 novel, the sprawling epic remains a stirring drama about greed, love and redemption. Filming on location in Alaska and at Denver, Colorado, director Clarence Brown used a broad pencil this time and apparently didn't spare neither his actors nor the scores of stunt people employed to make the dangerous trek to the Klondike truly memorable. The famous scene of the long, arduous climb to the Chilkoot Pass is indeed the film's centerpiece -- the strain of it all is plainly visible in the faces of the extra's -- but it is closely followed by the harrowing journey down the Whitehorse Rapids. The latter scenes, filmed on Alaska's Copper River, reportedly cost the lives of no less than four stunt players, including Ray Thompson, who had so memorably played the ranch foreman in Buster Keaton's Go West (1925). But director Brown did not let the forces of nature completely dwarf the human elements and Trail of '98 is brimming with memorable performances, including Karl Dane as a carefree Scandinavian type fleeing a shrewish wife; Harry Carey, cast against type as the villain of the piece; George Cooper as Dane's lazy partner; and Doris Lloyd as a soft-hearted Klondike floozy. Only Dolores Del Rio and Ralph Graves, the romantic leads, seem somewhat out of place in the wilderness.

All Movie Guide - Hans J. Wollstein