I had watched this as a kid on Italian TV; like TREASURE ISLAND (1972), it was a holiday favorite and did, in fact, remember the death scene of the Charlton Heston character after all these years!
I've only watched the 1935 Clark Gable film (just announced on DVD) once but this one, an international production as opposed to a studio product, results in being the inferior version. As such it's watchable but uninspired, and quite scrappily made; the location shooting, however, is a big plus - as is Carlo Rustichelli's score. Heston is commanding as ever, but the real stars of the picture are the dogs - which are featured in some pretty violent footage for a film based on a children's classic (by Jack London).
The rest of the cast is nothing special (George Eastman's villain is especially ludicrous), though both Michele Mercier and Maria Rohm (in yet another film produced by her husband Harry Alan Towers, who also co-wrote under his customary alias Peter Welbeck) are certainly attractive; still, the latter's shrill performance here demonstrates once again that it took a Jess Franco to offer her some worthy, meaty roles (particularly VENUS IN FURS [1968] and EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION [1969])!
I've only watched the 1935 Clark Gable film (just announced on DVD) once but this one, an international production as opposed to a studio product, results in being the inferior version. As such it's watchable but uninspired, and quite scrappily made; the location shooting, however, is a big plus - as is Carlo Rustichelli's score. Heston is commanding as ever, but the real stars of the picture are the dogs - which are featured in some pretty violent footage for a film based on a children's classic (by Jack London).
The rest of the cast is nothing special (George Eastman's villain is especially ludicrous), though both Michele Mercier and Maria Rohm (in yet another film produced by her husband Harry Alan Towers, who also co-wrote under his customary alias Peter Welbeck) are certainly attractive; still, the latter's shrill performance here demonstrates once again that it took a Jess Franco to offer her some worthy, meaty roles (particularly VENUS IN FURS [1968] and EUGENIE...THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION [1969])!