travsd

The Call of the Wild: All the Versions

Today is the national release date for the latest adaptation of the ultimate love poem to dogs, Jack London’s 1903 The Call of the Wild. I first read this ripping and brutal yarn in Junior High School, and rediscovered my love for Jack London a few years back while appearing in The Iron Heel . I’m slowly picking my way through his lesser known published works at the moment. At any rate the occasion seems appropriate for a quick glimpse back at the prior versions of this frozen canine epic. Now, mush! Mush!

1923

The book was only 20 years old when Hal Roach of all people produced the original silent adaptation, starring Jack Mulhall, Walter Long, and Frank Butler. Surprsingly, copies of this eclipsed classic survive. MOMA has one.

1935

I call the silent version eclipsed of course because the 1935 Zanuck version with Clark Gable became an instant classic, and remains the best known, I believe, despite the many others that have come afterwards. Directed by William Wellman, it also starred Loretta Young, Jack Oakie, Reginald Owen, and Sidney Toler. It was the final movie released by Twentieth Century before it merged with Fox.

1972

Charlton Heston starred in this international production.

1992

The 1992 tv movie version starred Ricky Schroder, then best known for the sitcom Silver Spoons.

1997

More than one critic has called this version the best one, and the one that is most faithful to the book. It stars Rutger Hauer, and is narrated by Richard Dreyfus.

2000

This 13 episode series ran on the Discovery Channel, and starred Canadian actor Nick Mancuso. 

2020

The new version launches in theatres today. While Harrison Ford is wonderful casting as the man in the story, the word on the street that the choice to make Buck a motion-capture animated cartoon dog is exceedingly weird Even still photos from the film are off-putting. I have no idea why studios insist on doing this with everything. Not once yet have I enjoyed a visit to Uncanny Valley. But in the interest of fairness, I will wait and see.

Published by travsd

Writer and performer Trav S.D. (www.travsd.com) is best known for his books "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous" (2005) and "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube" (2013). He has written for the NY Times, the Village Voice, American Theatre, Time Out NY, Reason, the Villager and numerous other publications. Trav has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995 when he launched his company Mountebanks, presenting hundreds of acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Tammy Faye Starlite to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, HERE, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, the Brick, and 6 separate shows in the NY International Fringe Festival. In 2014 he produced and directed the smash-hit "I’ll Say She Is", the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers hit 1924 Broadway show in the NY International Fringe Festival.