The Spoilers

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.

This 1955 version of The Spoilers for Universal Pictures remains the fifth and last version on film. After over 50 years it could use another remake and I'm surprised no one has done one. I can see someone like Russell Crowe in the hero role as Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and Jeff Chandler in this film have done before.

Not much variation on the plot in this film. Rory Calhoun plays the charming, but very caddish gold commissioner who has a carefully thought out scheme to rob Jeff Chandler and John McIntire of the contents of their mine. Calhoun is also jumping Chandler's claim on saloon owner Anne Baxter and Chandler himself doesn't help his cause when he starts giving Barbara Britton the once over. What he doesn't know is Britton is in league with Calhoun and company.

If you've seen the film that starred Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne and Randolph Scott from 1943 also for Universal you know exactly how this one comes out. All the cast including the three leads acquit themselves well in the roles carved out by movie legends.

I'd really love to see the 1930 version of The Spoilers that Gary Cooper starred in, but apparently the film is lost. If someone knows something else on the subject, let me know.

In any event this version of The Spoilers is fast moving and exciting western entertainment for fans of action films with a nice dose of sex, courtesy of Anne Baxter.

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.

In the small western town of Nome, "spoiling" is rife – that is the practice of driving others off their land and jumping onto others' claims as if they were your own. Without law and order Dextry and his partner Roy Glennister risk losing their mine to a group of characters out to jump their claim. The law is controlled by Alexander McNamara who stands to greatly benefit from getting control of the mines. As if the tension between Glennister and McNamara isn't tight enough as a result of this, McNamara also has eyes for Glennister's longtime girlfriend, hostess Cherry Malotte.

Having seen several westerns from the 1950's recently, I came to this with the impression that it would be just yet another forgettable genre film and, in a way, I suppose it was. However this is not to say that it is an average film because it is actually a pretty enjoyable genre picture. The plot mixes gun fights with crime with semi-love triangles and an air of comedy. It doesn't all sit well together but it does enough to provide an entertaining 90 minutes in the way that films of this nature used to try and do for their audiences. I personally didn't buy the love conflict aspect of it and would have liked that toned down a little bit in favour of more of the claim-jumping aspect but it all did enough to distract me on a quiet evening in.

The cast are solid enough but none of them particularly stuck in my mind. Baxter is colourful and does bring life to the film but the two male leads didn't impress me at all. Calhoun is just a mould of a leading man – nice smile, big chest, big jaw but nothing specific or special about him. Meanwhile Chandler just seems too old and grey for the character he is asked to play and I kept feeling like I was losing sight of him among the extras. Support from McIntire, Danton and others is OK but mostly the cast are just doing what the genre requires and no more.

Overall this is an enjoyable genre picture and it will provide entertainment for fans. The casual viewer will note the weaknesses that are inherent in this type of film but to be fair to it, it only does what you expect and for me it did it well enough to be a distracting piece of fun when I was in the mood for a solid bawdry western and nothing more.

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.