The Spoilers

IMDB and wiki says this is less than an hour and a half. The version I saw was nearly two hours. The main title also had a title in Spanish translating into The Corruption of Alaska. Could this be a Spanish version? There's also a good amount of time between the ending that wiki describes and the ending in this film. I wonder if there is added footage?

Another odd thing -- it appears to be based in the late 1800's but there's a scene early on where a bar tender presses an electrical button to alert someone that a person has come into the saloon/gambling joint.

Overall, this is a B western in my book. Directed like a TV movie.

A gang intent on stealing the gold mine owned by Jeff Chandler and John McIntire come to Nome during the Alaskan gold rush.

It's the fifth screen version of Reach Beach's sturdy novel, and Universal put its best foot forward in casting from among their stock company. Anne Baxter comes close to busting out of her decolletage as Cherry Malotte, Rory Calhoun gives a fine performance as the smooth Alex McNamara, and Ray Danton, Barbara Britton, Wallace Ford, Carl Benton Reid, Raymond Walburn (in his last big screen performance) and Ruth Donnelly show up. But Jesse Hibbs direction is adequate, and the stunt men doubling for Chandler and Calhoun don't actually try to kill each other, as William Farnum and Tom Santschi did in the 1914 version. It's quite enjoyable, but as with many a 1950s version of a durable property, it seems a bit rote, less connected to the characters Beach had met when he fell to gold fever in Alaska, and more to roles that had become a bit stereotyped over the decades. Still, it's always fun to see people fall into the thick, gluey mud.

The first scene gave me great hopes. The miner's dirty clothes, the looks of the town and the muddy street. Then my hopes were dashed when the lady showed up. This was Nome, Alaska in 1899 and she show up wearing a dress, hat and feathers that would be more appropriate at a San Francisco opera. During the rest of the movie, all the major characters wore clothes that were always clean, pressed and way too fancy for the time and place. I've never understood why directors would allow a movie to be made with such obvious flaws. Makes no sense. The movie had a pretty good plot but for me, the 1956 style acting, script and special effects could have been done so much better with a little more thought.

All these Alaskan films are usually worth watching mainly for their splendid bar fights, in which the contestants usually conscientiously wreck the entire establishment, break all windows, smash all bottles, destroy the entire bar and make a perfect exorbitant havoc of the whole studio set-up. Anne Baxter is no Marlene Dietrich, but any film with Jeff Chandler is worth watching just for his sake if for nothing else, and although he is no John Wayne he is more likable and intelligent. Earlier films on this book of gold diggers being cheated of their mines by foul play were usually in black and white, while this one is in color. It doesn't make the story any better, but it adds color to the fights, making them more splendidly colorful. Still the earlier version with Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne is to be preferred, it was more alive, while the only truly genuine characters here are the old gold diggers defending what they waged their lives for.

This comes nowhere near the quality of the original film with John Wayne and Randolph Scott. Jeff Chandler is too old and has no class. Rory Calhoun is the new kid on the block, but he is not impressive in the Scott role. And even though Anne Baxter is a good actress in her own right, she is no replacement for Marlene Dietrich. She has class with Wayne in both the original film and 'Seven Sinners'. There is no real tension between Chandler and Colhoun like there was between Wayne and Scott, and it made you realise that even if the plot is a bit pedestrian at times, the performances between Wayne, Scott and Dietrich maintained your attention. This is not the case in this version and I would advise fans to stay away from this version and watch the original.