Nomads of the North

...from director David Hartford. In a remote forest community named Fort O'God, the local company boss Duncan McDougall (Melbourne MacDowell) rules with an iron fist. His sleazeball son Bucky (Francis McDonald) has the hots for Nanette (Betty Blythe) who is apparently the only girl of marrying age in the area. She rebuffs Bucky's advances, though, just as she turns down a marriage proposal from nice-guy Mountie Mike O'Connor (Lewis Stone), because her heart belongs to long-missing trapper Raoul Challoner (Lon Chaney). When Bucky convinces Nanette that Raoul is dead, she agrees to marry him, but Raoul, along with his pet dog and pet bear, shows up in time to stop the wedding. This eventually leads to violence, and Raoul and Nanette head out into the vast Canadian wilderness to live as fugitives. O'Connor is assigned to track them down and arrest them.

Part of this plays as overwrought melodrama, other parts as outdoor nature comedy, with long passages of Chaney's pets cavorting in the woods. Some of the pets' shenanigans would give the modern day ASPCA palpitations, but no overt animal cruelty is shown. Chaney gets to play a normal, romantic leading man, which is odd, and also a bit boring. Stone is square-jawed, and already sports all-white hair. I'm sure the outdoor footage was a treat for viewers at the time.

This movie shouldn't be looked at for any redeeming social value or higher meaning. It's a rip-roaring melodrama that makes you cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys. Chaney overacts horribly (but deliciously) as Challoner and Stone is suitably stoic as the Mountie forced to track Chaney down. Macdonald is the man who tries to steal Blythe's virtue. It looks like they had a lot of fun making this one. They just don't make movies like this anymore: they either make the lampoon too obvious or take themselves too damned seriously.

A film that is similar to "Valley of the Giants"(1919) and Universal's later "The Ice Flood"(1926). Lon Chaney doesn't appear in this movie until almost a quarter way in. This is one of the more pleasant silent 'north-country' films that has come down through the years from the silent era. The photographpy is absolutely sharp(in the print I viewed!) and the wonderful score Milestone put on the video is in tune with the action on the screen. these are how silent films are supposed to be presented. The animal sequences with the dog & bear cub are cute & winsome. There are several animals to be seen in this film ie a dog, a bear, puma-w/cubs, foxes, bees. The outdoor scenes are so well captured on film that you hardly remember the story comes from a written source, a novel by James Oliver Curwood. In addition to the scenery another pleasantry to the eye is Betty Blythe, one of the most beautiful women in silent pictures. She is eye candy extraordinaire and not afraid to get her hands dirty in the story. Chaney's French-Canadian trapper makeup is convincing though at times he looks like a Pony Express rider. Two Chaney film regulars appear in this film, Melbourne Macdowell(Outside the Law) and Spottiswood Aitken(The Wicked Darling). Lewis Stone shows up as a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and has nothing really to do but ogle beautiful Betty. Handsome Francis McDonald is the villain/foe of Chaney's character Raoul. A crony of McDonald's called "Marat" is played by one Gordon Mullen, an actor who bears a dead ringer resemblance to today's Jake Gyllenhaal. Enjoy this picture, a wonderful pleasing silent movie experience. Directed by David Hartford , released by First National Pictures.

This is one of those films made before Chaney became a great star and is, sadly, just another potboiler. Chaney himself overacts wildly and you might be forgiven for thinking this movie was made ten years earlier. Betty Blythe is no more than homely.Lewis Stone acts with dignity and is understated throughout, though scenes of him looking for Chaney are too obviously posed, a little like the much mocked "catalogue" pose. Greatest credit goes to Brimstone and Neewa who consistently maintain their standards throughout the film. There is a rather feeble use of miniatures in the storm at night scene, but the great forest fire is obviously genuine and there are some wonderful shots of the northern landscape which, on my copy, are backed by a fairly suitable classical track-it may be Tchaikovsky, but I'm not certain.

Adapted for the screen for his own production company from his 1919 novel of the same name by James Oliver Kurwood, it comes as little surprise that Kurwood's book was later filmed by Disney (much changed) as 'Nikki, Wild Dog of the North' in 1961.

Chaney completists, take heed, his role is billed third, although he actually has more screen time than top-billed Lewis S. Stone (as he is indentified in the credits); the real stars being Walter L. Griffin's superb outdoor photography, the cute team of a bear called Neewa and his four-legged friend Brimstone, and leading lady Betty Blythe; in roughly that order.

The rather one-note positivity of Chaney's role has been the subject of complaints; but this was still early days and he hadn't yet become as closely associated with macabre melodrama as he soon would. I found it refreshing to see him looking so dashing and handsome and getting the girl at the end. (Usually when you see Chaney looking this bright-eyed and bushy-tailed it's at the start of a flashback and something TERRIBLE promptly happens to him; it's nice to see him get a break for once.)