It is inevitable and interesting to compare this screen rendering of what is often considered Jack London's greatest novel with the version 40 years earlier with Edward G. Robinson in the title role, directed by Michael Curtiz. That was of course a much better film, but some credits are due also here. This is simply an Italian take on Jack London, and you must pardon the Italians for framing the great novel after their own minds. Chuck Connors is actually more convincing as Wolf-Larsen than Robinson, who was a great actor but a small man without the enormous physical superiority which characterizes Wolf-Larsen. Chuck Connors shows off all the brutal strength and imposing bulk of brutish force which Robinson did not quite exhibit, being smaller than all his crew. This film also sticks more closely to the book, although much abbreviated, while the Robinson version had many diversions, mainly because of the chief character not being Alexander Knox as Humphrey van Meyden but John Garfield as George Leach, one of the seamen. On the other hand, you miss Ida Lupino here, who played a much greater role in the Robinson version, while here Barbara Bach does not appear (like in the book) until half the show is over. There are a lot more tempests and hard labour against the sea here than in Curtiz' film, so the films are very different but compliment each other, as both are complimentary enough at least to Jack London.
