The Emperor of The North

Emperor of the North Pole From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Emperor of the North

original film poster
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Produced by Kenneth Hyman
Stan Hough
Screenplay by Christopher Knopf
Story by Jack London (uncredited)
Starring Lee Marvin
Ernest Borgnine
Keith Carradine
Music by Frank De Vol
Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc
Editing by Michael Luciano
Studio Inter-Hemisphere
20th Century Fox
Distributed by 20th Century Fox (USA, theatrical)
Fox-MGM (West Germany)
ABC USA TV airing
Release date(s) 1973
Running time 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $2 million[1]

Emperor of the North Pole is a 1973 American film starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine. It was re-released under the shorter title Emperor of the North, and is better known under the latter name.

The film is about hobos during the 1930s and is set in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is based, in part, on the books The Road by Jack London and From Coast to Coast with Jack London by "A-No.-1" (the pen-name of Leon Ray Livingston), although both of those books predate the 1930s by a few decades. Carradine's character, Cigaret, uses the same moniker that Jack London used on the road, and like London, is portrayed as a young traveling companion to the older A-No.-1 (played by Marvin), but that is otherwise where the similarity between Carradine's character and Jack London ends, as Cigaret is portrayed in the film as immature, loud-mouthed, and none too bright. The title is a reference to a joke among hobos during the Great Depression that the world's best hobo was "Emperor of the North Pole", a way of poking fun at their own desperate situation since somebody ruling over the North Pole would reign over a wasteland.
Plot
Shack is a sadistic bully of a railroad conductor who takes it upon himself to forcibly remove any hobo who tries to ride on his train. Shack has an assortment of makeshift weapons: a hammer, a steel rod, and a chain.

A hobo who is a hero to his peers, A-No.1, manages to hop the train with the younger, less-experienced Cigaret not far behind. At the next stop, A-No.1 evades Shack and escapes into the hobo jungle, but Cigaret is caught. Shack threatens to kill Cigaret, who is bragging that he and he alone got a free ride.

Shack is distracted when he gets the message that A-No.1 (whom he knows by reputation) has announced that he will become the first hobo to ride Shack's train all the way to Portland.

The other hobos agree that the first who can successfully ride Shack's train will have earned the title "Emperor of the North Pole." Railroad workers place bets whether A-No.-1 can do it, spreading the news far and wide over the telegraph, Shack being widely known and disliked.

A-No.1 hops the train and does everything he can to steer clear of Shack, pulling a series of pranks with the help of other hobos, such as running Shack's train into a siding. He tries to rid himself of the company of Cigaret, who tags along and makes a general pest of himself. Shack succeeds in ejecting the two, but they board a fast passenger train which overtakes Shack's train and ride it to Salem, Oregon.

There they have several farcical encounters, including one with a policeman who chases the two into the Salem hobo jungle, accusing them of stealing a turkey. They also encounter a Holiness minister holding an outdoor baptism service.

The two hobos reboard Shack's train after it arrives in Salem. The story ends with a climactic fight, involving heavy chains, planks of wood and an ax. A-No.1 ultimately has the bloodied Shack at his mercy, but instead of killing him, he just throws him off the train. He then tosses Cigaret off for bragging about how "they" defeated Shack, telling the kid he could have become a good bum but he's got no class.

Films directed by Robert Aldrich

1950s Big Leaguer (1953) ·Apache (1954) ·Vera Cruz (1954) ·Kiss Me Deadly (1955) ·The Big Knife (1955) ·Autumn Leaves (1956) ·Attack (1956) ·Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) ·The Angry Hills (1959)

1960s The Last Sunset (1961) ·Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) ·What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) ·4 for Texas (1963) ·Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) ·The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) ·The Dirty Dozen (1967) ·The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) ·The Killing of Sister George (1968)

1970s Too Late the Hero (1970) ·The Grissom Gang (1971) ·Ulzana's Raid (1972) ·Emperor of the North Pole (1973) ·The Longest Yard (1974) ·Hustle (1975) ·Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) ·The Choirboys (1977) ·The Frisco Kid (1979)

1980s ...All the Marbles (1981)

Filming locationThe film was shot in and around the city of Cottage Grove, Oregon along the right-of-way of the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway (OP&E).[2] Willis Kyle, President of the OP&E in 1972, allowed the film company unlimited access to make the film.[citation needed] Oregon, Pacific and Eastern's rolling stock, including two steam locomotives (one of these being #19, a type 2-8-2 Mikado), appear in the film.[2] This was the same location used by Buster Keaton for his 1927 railroad feature The General. Also featured in the film is the Dorena Reservoir, located about 10 miles east of Cottage Grove,[3] and OP&E's railyard in downtown Cottage Grove
References1.^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p232
2.^ a b "Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railway". Abandoned Railroads of the Pacific Northwest. http://www.brian894x4.com/OPandErailroad.html. Retrieved 2006-11-09.
3.^ "Row River Trail: Harms Park". City of Cottage Grove, Oregon. http://www.cottagegrove.org/trail/htm/harms.htm. Retrieved 2006-11-09.




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The trestle bridge at Harms Park was one of several locations immortalized on the silver screen. Movies filmed along the railway included "Stand By Me" with River Phoenix, "Emperor of the North" with Ernest Borginine, and in 1926, "The General" with Buster Keaton.