Queen of the Yukon

"Queen of the Yukon" is a good low-budget melodrama based on a story by Jack London. The story and setting are interesting and are for the most part nicely done, making up for somewhat routine characters and dialogue.

There are two different story-lines that come together pretty well in the middle of the movie. In the gold-mining region of the Yukon, Sadie Martin (Irene Rich) owns a riverboat that brings transportation and entertainment to the miners of the area. The deceitful Thorne has plans to take over Sadie's boat and also to cheat the miners out of their claims. Meanwhile, Sadie is trying to keep her daughter - whom she has sent away to school - from finding out about the less savory details of her life. But one day Helen arrives unexpectedly with her naive boyfriend Bob, who plans to work for Thorne. Sadie turns to her trusted friend Ace (Charles Bickford) for help.

The key scene is in the middle of the film when Thorne and Sadie square off in a high-stakes game of faro - all of the plot lines come together at once, and it sets off a rapid sequence of events in the last half of the movie, leading up to an ending that is very melodramatic but also satisfying. While the characters are routine, the story itself keeps your attention all the way through, and the Yukon setting is quite believable.

This film works rather well both as a Western and as an old-time melodrama.