The Call of the Wild (1972 film)
| The Call of the Wild | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Screenplay by | Peter Yeldham Peter Welbeck Wyn Wells |
| Based on | |
| Produced by | Artur Brauner Harry Alan Towers |
| Starring | Charlton Heston Michèle Mercier George Eastman Raimund Harmstorf Maria Rohm Sancho Gracia |
| Cinematography | John Cabrera |
| Edited by | Thelma Connell |
| Music by | Carlo Rustichelli |
Production company | Massfilms Limited |
| Distributed by | Intercontinental Releasing Corp. |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom France Italy Spain West Germany |
| Language | English |
The Call of the Wild is a 1972 family adventure film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Charlton Heston, Michèle Mercier, Raimund Harmstorf, George Eastman, and Maria Rohm.[1] It was written by Peter Yeldham, Peter Welbeck and Wyn Wells ased on Jack London's 1903 novel The Call of the Wild,[2] the film follows the adventures of Buck, a dog that is brought north to Canada to be used as a sled dog.
Plot
John Thornton, a prospector 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 to avenge him. At the end of the film, Buck comes to the White River to mourn the place where Thornton died.
Cast
- Charlton Heston as John Thornton
- Michèle Mercier as Calliope Laurent
- Raimund Harmstorf as Pete
- George Eastman as Black Burton (dubbed by Robert Rietty)
- Maria Rohm as Mercedes
- Juan Luis Galiardo as Seze
- Sancho Gracia as Taglish Charlie
- Friedhelm Lehmann as Charles
- Horst Heuck as Hal
- Rik Battaglia as Dutch Harry
- Alfredo Mayo as Judge Miller
- Sverre Wilberg as Colonel
Production
The film was shot on location in Finland, Norway, and Spain.[3]
Reception
Tom Milne wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin : "Scrappy and sentimentalised adaptation of Jack London's splendid story, rather more faithful to the original than Wellman's 1935 version but without any of the latter's redeeming features. Both Wellman and Kuleshov in Dura Lex extracted a weird expressionistic intensity from London's narrative style, but here he is reduced to a Boys' Own Paper hack mooning on about the love of a dog for a man. The Norwegian locations stand in quite attractively for Alaska, but the call of the wild – Buck prancing through autumnal woods and fondly eyeing his half-wolf offspring – has about as much primitive pull as an invitation to walkies. "[4]
Charlton Heston in his autobiography In the Arena: An Autobiography made it very clear how unhappy he was with this film and asked people to not watch it.[5][6]
Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide described it as a "swinging back to action-adventure", starring "Charlton Heston at his best", another in the "long line of Annakin's panoramic films featuring a myriad of beautiful locations".[3]
In Italy the film was a surprise success: it spawned a trend of Northern adventure films during the 1970s, including White Fang (1973).[7]
References
- ^ "The Call of the Wild". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 7 December 2025.
- ^ Gale, C.L. (2015). A Study Guide for Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Novels for Students. The Gale Group, Inc. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4103-3556-2. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
- ^ a b Allon, Yoram; Cullen, Del; Patterson, Hannah (2001). Contemporary British and Irish Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide. Wallflower Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-903364-21-5.
- ^ "The Call of the Wild". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 40 (468): 164. 1 January 1973. ProQuest 1305828462.
- ^ Charlton Heston (1997). In the Arena: An Autobiography. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-57297-267-4.
- ^ Moore, R. (2014). Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown. Michael O'Mara. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-78243-267-8. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
Incidentally, of the former film, its star, Charlton Heston said, 'The worst film I ever made was The Call of the Wild.
- ^ Weisser, Thomas (2005). Spaghetti Westerns--the Good, the Bad and the Violent: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography of 558 Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961-1977. McFarland, p. 255