Call of the Wild
(aka L' APPEL DE LA FORÊT, NÅR VILLDYRET VÅKNER,
with: Charlton Heston (John Thornton), Michelle Mercier (Calliope Laurent), Raimund Harmstorf (Pete), George Eastman (Black Burton), Maria Rohm (Mercedes), Juan Luis Galiardo (Seze), Rik Battaglia (Dutch Harry)
***
Plot Outline: A house dog is abducted and brought to the Alaskan gold rush as a sled dog.
***
An atmospheric, crude and reckless interpretation of Jack London's survival classic, coming off at times as virtually surreal. With its brutal violence to dogs, weird syntho-score and surprisingly spooky atmosphere, this plays more like a horror movie than a family film, and would assuredly be quite scary to a kid.
And there are many tacky elements, such as bad dubbing and failed comic relief. As it was filmed in Spain and Norway, it isn't surprising that this has the aesthetic of a spaghetti western. Yet it is admittedly fun to watch gun-toting Charlton Heston stumble through one of his many "bad" movies, as well as following the sad decline of once-promising director Ken Annakin. Toppling from the lofty heights of the august THE LONGEST DAY, Annakin fell fast and furious to directing second-string kidsploitation like this, THE PIRATE MOVIE and the hideous THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING.
As this film was co-produced by the decidedly eclectic Harry Alan Towers, it isn't surprising that there are some risque scenes, but nobody could anticipate the bizarre fantasy sequence with Heston as a wimpy bartender watching helplessly as his girlfriend whores around!
There's also a very downbeat ending, with the now-dead Heston looking up through a hole in the ice at his beloved dog, Buck, who then runs off to live with wolves. Quite bizarre.
The multi-national co-production had significantly different release dates throughout several of its countries of sponsorship. This version of CALL OF THE WILD is often confused with the 1976 TV-movie starring John Beck, which premiered on NBC's "Hallmark Hall of Fame".
Video/DVD availability: VHS, DVD (various)
IL RICHIAMO DELLA FORESTA, RUF DER WILDNIS, LA SELVA BLANCA)
(1972, U.K./France/West Germany/Italy/Spain/Norway)
color 105/104/100 minutes
CCC Filmkunst GmbH / Massfilms Ltd. /
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Norsk Film A/S /
Towers of London Productions /
Oceania Produzioni Internazionali Cinematografiche /
UPF / Izaro Films S.A. /
Intercontinental Releasing Corporation
Story by Jack London (from his novel)
Screenplay: Federico Urrutia, Hubert Frank,
Tibor Reeves, Harry Alan Towers (as "Peter Welbeck"),
Wyn Wells, Peter Yeldham
Music: Carlo Rustichelli
Cinematography: John Cabrera
Produced by: Artur Brauner, George Davis,
Peter Manley, Harry Alan Towers
Directed by: Ken Annakin
