This was William Farnum's first feature-length film. He was around 38 at the time, having spent his career on the stage. But he doesn't look too old for the part, although in a few scenes, he appears to have a bit of a gut. Still, he is well cast as the hero, and the story follows the Rex Beach novel pretty faithfully. Interestingly, if you download the novel from googlebooks, it contains stills from the film, and those stills are in fairly good shape.
The story revolves around a villain trying to seize Farnum's Alaskan gold mine. The villain, played by Tom Santschi, is somewhat atypical. Santschi was better-looking than Farnum, and taller. Although it's clear he is unscrupulous, he's not the hissable type. Farnum and Santschi are at odds over the mine and a woman, so you know that at some point, they will square off. The climactic fight scene has been written about in magazines, and was even mentioned in Farnum's death notices. It is bizarre, to say the least. It is more like a wrestling match, with bear hugs, arm locks, etc., although a few punches are thrown. Shirts are torn. In one impressive show of strength, Santschi actually yanks Farnum off the ground and has him almost horizontally in the air for a moment. The fight lasts about 90 seconds. Several accounts of that fight have been given by Farnum, although they all seem to indicate that he and Santschi discussed the fight ahead of time and decided to really go at it. Farnum claims that the fight scene went on for five minutes more than it was supposed to, and that a lot of the fight scene was cut from the film. Some accounts say the film ran for almost two hours (it's 98 minutes on Youtube), so perhaps it was shown at slower speeds in some places, making the fight last longer. In any event, the fight does look realistic, and the actors did their own fighting.
This is by no means a great film, but it does have historical significance. Farnum's film career really took off, and he would eventually rake in $100,000 a year.
The story revolves around a villain trying to seize Farnum's Alaskan gold mine. The villain, played by Tom Santschi, is somewhat atypical. Santschi was better-looking than Farnum, and taller. Although it's clear he is unscrupulous, he's not the hissable type. Farnum and Santschi are at odds over the mine and a woman, so you know that at some point, they will square off. The climactic fight scene has been written about in magazines, and was even mentioned in Farnum's death notices. It is bizarre, to say the least. It is more like a wrestling match, with bear hugs, arm locks, etc., although a few punches are thrown. Shirts are torn. In one impressive show of strength, Santschi actually yanks Farnum off the ground and has him almost horizontally in the air for a moment. The fight lasts about 90 seconds. Several accounts of that fight have been given by Farnum, although they all seem to indicate that he and Santschi discussed the fight ahead of time and decided to really go at it. Farnum claims that the fight scene went on for five minutes more than it was supposed to, and that a lot of the fight scene was cut from the film. Some accounts say the film ran for almost two hours (it's 98 minutes on Youtube), so perhaps it was shown at slower speeds in some places, making the fight last longer. In any event, the fight does look realistic, and the actors did their own fighting.
This is by no means a great film, but it does have historical significance. Farnum's film career really took off, and he would eventually rake in $100,000 a year.