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Crappy film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a fairly funny Western romance.At first it seems pretty weak, but on second viewing, it is better. Not great, but better.The review that stated this was better than the classic THE COMMANCHEROS, is ridiculous. This is not nearly that good, but it wasn't meant to be.Still, the big name stars do a great job on what is more a stage comedy than a blockbuster movie, and that's good.The direction is extremely good, and the reason it works better on a second viewing. The cause and effect, the logic of the sequence of events, are excellently done. It's not a "deep" movie, just a "fun" movie.

As I decided to have a break from studying, I flicked through channels and this film was on the Film4 channel, so I'm like, sure why not? I have only seen one John Wayne film properly which was the "Quiet Man" but I got to manage to sit this one out too! I swear Capucine was such a bae back then. She really is so pretty like it's a surprise that I've never heard of her before. She really brightens the screen and I honestly didn't expect she would hook up with John Wayne's character in the end. I would've thought she would hook up with Fabian's character, Billy. It's just, they look similar in age whereas John Wayne looked ten times older. There ya go, films like these contain surprises!It's a very funny movie that all ages would enjoy! I would definitely recommend this old gem to anyone who hasn't ever seen it before!

. . . NORTH TO ALASKA's Hollywood "pitch" must have been, "Elvis meets The Three Stooges." Often the biggest stars nurture the largest inferiority complexes, sometime to the detriment of their twilight years flicks. Take John Wayne, for example. After he turned 40 in 1947, most of his remaining 62 theatrical films come off more like variety shows, crammed full of stunt casting (such as NORTH's Bieber-like "Fabian," and Twiggy-like "Capucine") and the padding of seemingly endless extraneous detours (such as the Logger's Picnic and the Wreck-a-Sluice Shoot-out in NORTH, not to mention its spoof-like Casino and Mud brawls) in an aging star's admission that the force of his personality is no longer enough to carry a picture by itself. When you trim off an hour or more of this packed-on fat clogging the arterial action of these 60-plus Wayne flicks, you're often left with just 20 or 25 minutes devoted to the primary characters and resolving their core conflicts. Wayne crams too much misogyny (or abuse of women) into his "Sam" character for NORTH to be viewed in a humorous vein, and if Fabian is actually feeling as bad as he looks while singing here, he should get off the pot and swallow lots of Ex-Lax!

John Wayne and Stewart Granger should have done more comedies. In NORTH TO ALASKA the two veterans play freewheeling partners in a gold mine in 1901 Alaska. The action shifts from Alaska to Seattle and back, although it is pretty apparent the whole thing was shot in California. Wayne goes to Seattle to take care of some business and looks up Granger's love, who has married someone else in Granger's absence. Wayne then meets Capucine, as a saloon gal (aka hooker) and decides she'll do just as well for his lovesick partner. Complications ensue when Capucine falls for Wayne instead. Beginning in the late 1940s, Wayne was often paired with a young actor, and in this case that role is filled by Fabian as Granger's kid brother. The lighthearted mood of the film is established within minutes of the opening, with a huge and lengthy barroom brawl replete with zany sound effects and outrageous mugging by all. I was never fond of Hollywood's decision in the 1950s and '60s to cast foreign actresses in leading lady roles. Sophia Loren could get away with it; Capucine (and many others like her) could not. I did not buy her for one minute as Wayne's love interest here. She's way too refined to be playing a prostitute, and her acting is stilted. Unfortunately, she was the producer's gal pal at the time. Anyhow, Wayne was in pretty good shape in 1960, and he and Granger (and to some lesser extent Fabian) keep things rocking and rolling. They are 1901's answer to The Three Stooges. Ernie Kovacs plays the film's nominal villain, a sleazy saloon owner and claim jumper. As always in a Wayne film, the cast is dotted with several old familiar aces, including John Qualen, Joe Sawyer and Kathleen Freeman.