THE TRAIL OF '98 (1928)

Still impressive late silent (with music & effects track) on the quick rise & fast fall of the Klondike Gold Rush, with unusually muscular direction from Clarence Brown on the toughest shoot of his long career.  A constant location work misery (mainly Colorado) in blizzards, mud-clogged thaws and raging rivers.  (Four stuntman died.)  Loaded with one impossible set piece after another when news of an Alaskan gold strike travels the country in Act One; hopeful fools mass westward, then turn right to face a long trek North, hazarding a weather-blasted death march up to Dawson City, staging area for the Klondike, as Act Two; finally heading into unchartered wintry wilds with the unlikely hope of finding a fortune and getting in your claim before it’s stolen in the Third Act.  Unusually for these epics, the human stories are just as thrilling as the big action sequences (avalanche; running the rapids; sled race to make a claim; life or death climb over the pass; a fiery climactic fight to the finish - all boasting still remarkable F/X) as madness, failure, starvation & lives lost claim characters in near arbitrary fashion.  Not just the reckless, old or bad, but Grandparents; bound-for-life brothers turning against the other over a shot of whiskey; a larky go-getting teen.   And hardly a moment to mourn the loss.  Dolores Del Rio (prostituting to survive) & Ralph Forbes (in remarkably sensitive form) are the lovers; Karl Dane, strong as an ox as a loyal, comic Dane; Harry Carey as the opportunistic villain (stealing land & women); each in top form.  With one of the great fights in film as climax.  (Damn hard to make those work without easy sound effects to add oomph to the punches.  And watch how director Brown lets Carey calmly set up the battle.)  Extra credit to cinematographer John Seitz, just off his last two films with Rex Ingram (MARE NOSTRUM; THE MAGICIAN) and THE PATSY for King Vidor, for shooting under such conditions.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Some of the more spectacular effects look like ‘Schüfftan Process’ trick work though inventor, Eugene Schüfftan, had yet to come Stateside.  (The process combined live action with miniatures fit into frame with mirrors.)

LINK/DOUBLE-BILL: Charles Chaplin’s great comic take on this madness: THE GOLD RUSH/’25.  (Look for the restored 88" cut.)  OR: The other 1928 Hollywood epic to kill stuntmen (and possibly a few extras!), NOAH’S ARK.  Beautifully restored, but TRAIL is the better pic.) https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/noahs-ark-1928.html