Search - Klondike on DVD

Dishonoured Surgeon, Outcast From Society, Discovers An Unex

rsoonsa | Lake Isabella, California | 05/09/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Thelma Todd, noted for agreeable performances as comedienne in a good many feature films and shorts, is effective here in an essentially serious dramatic role, acting as linchpin about which a complex life or death decision must be made. A mainstay of the Monogram Pictures catalogue for years, the film was eventually lost, a print being latterly rediscovered as part of a privately owned collection held in southern Arizona, where the sere ambient had caused some nitrate decomposition in addition to other problems. It was, however, for the most part successfully restored and, now a public domain commodity, has been reissued. Opening action takes place in New York City where surgeon Robert Cromwell (Lyle Talbot) is being tried for murder, charged with wilfully causing the death of a patient following a developmental operation to excise an intracranial tumour, a procedure that Doctor Cromwell believes was, in reality, a success, although the state's medical board's opinion differs from his, and additionally with the court's finding of innocence, as it subsequently revokes Cromwell's medical licence due to the incident and its attendant publicity. As means of escaping from his subsequent torment, Cromwell accepts a proposal from his flying instructor, Donald Evans (Frank Hawks), to accompany the pilot through Canadian skies to Japan, but a fresh and drastic difficulty is to be part of Cromwell's lot, as the aircraft slams down in Alaska, killing Evans and leaving the unlucky doctor critically wounded in a frozen wilderness. Rescued by a trapper making his rounds, Cromwell is taken to a close on trading post, Armstrong's, where he delightedly accedes to the ministrations of the post owner's fiancée, "Klondike" (Todd), whose affection is soon gained by this ruggedly handsome surgeon on the lam, to the distinct displeasure of her future husband, wheel chair restricted Jim Armstrong (Jason Robards) himself. Cromwell's agreeable stay at the post is sharply altered because an invalid Armstrong is afflicted, in true Hollywood fashion, with precisely the same disease that indirectly propelled the discredited doctor from the United States, and smitten Klondike and Robert agree that he shall perform an identical operation upon Armstrong to that which led to Robert's loss of honour, a dissection that, if successfully completed, will clearly bring about the end of romance between these newly-minted lovers. Generally considered during the time of its original showings as somewhat above Monogram's routine programmer stock-in- trade, the work for its initial reissue is given proper consideration, a satisfactory print being a result. Notwithstanding this, an Alpha Home Entertainment version is characterized by woefully poor sound quality, much of the dialogue scarcely comprehensible. Both Talbot and Todd are well-established and consistently creative ad libbers, and they play well together here, while the supporting cast is a cut above the standard for most "B" films, with one highlight an appearance of famed aviator Hawks, who during one of his scenes describes in some detail injuries he suffered in a greatly publicized air crash. All in all, then, KLONDIKE must be considered a largely studio-bound potboiler, but remains quite good fun nonetheless."