Surprised to find out that this was a remake of "Spawn of the North", I expected a generic action/adventure with a touch of romantic intrigue and came upon an obscure B film that has many surprisingly interesting twists. This starts off with a view of the Salmon trade in Alaska with the natives praying to their God to keep the Salmon flowing in, and the sudden lack of available fish and the illegal theft that results out of this. The film surrounds the attempts to keep thieves from stealing the salmon catch, basically "fish pirates" who flood the Alaska seas and grab the nets holding the legal trade's catch. The efforts to do this are often dangerous and filled with malevolent actions, such as using a boat whistle to trigger icebergs to drop off the ice flows that guard the sea, usually ending up sinking the legal trades out in the water and causing ghastly cold deaths in those frigid waters.
The romantic intrigue comes between old pals Robert Ryan as a returning fisherman who has become involved with the bad guys (lead by Gene Barry) and Brian Keith, who runs an honest salmon trade, both in love with the sultry Jan Sterling who was once involved with Ryan but has turned to Keith after Ryan left her. Sterling, who could play a femme fatale as easily as Ryan could play a brooding anti-hero, is seductive but not calculating here, underplaying her part and doing an excellent job. She would be nominated for an Oscar for the same year's "The High and the Mighty", but is equally fine here. There's little heat in Ryan and Keith's performances, and the romantic elements are outweighed by the fishing boat sequences, especially those involving the icebergs shedding off giant chunks and the fight scenes. This is one of those films that can be enjoyed for the entertainment and suspense it provides, but one wishes for more spark, even though Sterling gets to develop her character beyond just the middle part of a romantic triangle. This does appear to be a film that would have been great to watch on the big screen, especially if it had been filmed in 3-D!
The romantic intrigue comes between old pals Robert Ryan as a returning fisherman who has become involved with the bad guys (lead by Gene Barry) and Brian Keith, who runs an honest salmon trade, both in love with the sultry Jan Sterling who was once involved with Ryan but has turned to Keith after Ryan left her. Sterling, who could play a femme fatale as easily as Ryan could play a brooding anti-hero, is seductive but not calculating here, underplaying her part and doing an excellent job. She would be nominated for an Oscar for the same year's "The High and the Mighty", but is equally fine here. There's little heat in Ryan and Keith's performances, and the romantic elements are outweighed by the fishing boat sequences, especially those involving the icebergs shedding off giant chunks and the fight scenes. This is one of those films that can be enjoyed for the entertainment and suspense it provides, but one wishes for more spark, even though Sterling gets to develop her character beyond just the middle part of a romantic triangle. This does appear to be a film that would have been great to watch on the big screen, especially if it had been filmed in 3-D!
