Hello Posse!
Today I want to bring you one of my favorite John Wayne westerns. I know, I have a lot of favorites with John Wayne in them but this one is special, it is a comedy. Most of Wayne's westerns were straightforward dramatic westerns but North to Alaska proved that Wayne was good with comedy too.
This film was released in 1960 by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Henry Hathaway and John Wayne, though he is uncredited. John Wayne stars in this movie along with Stewart Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Capucine, and Fabian. The story is based on a play titled, Birthday Gift by Ladislas Fodor.
It was reported that Gary Crosby (son of Bing Crosby and Dixie Lee) was originally cast to play the part that eventually went to Fabian, a popular singer at the time that 20th Century Fox was trying to cross over into a film star.
The story is set in 1901 in Nome, Alaska. Brothers George (Granger) and Billy Pratt (Fabian) and partner Sam McCord (Wayne) struck gold on their claim and have become rich. Sam travels to Seattle, WA to buy new mining equipment. George has been writing to a French woman, Jenny Lamont (Lilyan Chauvin), for years, whom he has never actually met. He asked her to marry him and she agreed. George asks Sam to bring his fiancée back with him. Sam, who considers marriage to be worse than servitude, is disgusted but eventually agrees to escort George's love to him.
Before leaving Alaska, Sam runs into a conman who just recently came to town, Frankie Cannon (Kovacs). Frankie tries to cheat Sam out of some of his money before he leaves town. When Sam reaches Seatlle he finds that George's fiancée has already married another man. Considering George has never met the woman, Sam decides to bring back a prostitute who is called "Angel" (Capucine) as a substitute. Sam gives her the gifts George had sent for Jenny. Angel misunderstands the situation and Sam's intentions. She thinks Sam is the one interested in her.
Angle begins to fall for Sam when the two attend a reunion picnic of Sam's old logging buddies. Sam treats her like a respectable lady, something she is not used to having men do. As they travel north to Alaska, Angel learns the truth of the arrangement. Sam decides to send her back to Seattle, but she gets off the boat in Nome and goes to the hotel only to find out that the conman, Frankie, a man she has had relations with in the past.
Angle refuses to stay in the hotel and risk being forced back into a relationship with Frankie. She fakes an altercation and leaves the hotel. Sam decides to take her back to the mining claim with him where the fun and misunderstanding really take off. This is a great film to watch when you really want to relax and have a few great laughs with some serious onscreen talent.
I was trying to find something that would be a good themed movie snack with this one. I had a few ideas but when I was looking up foods I noticed a lot of things talking about meat shortages in the US right now. Because of this I am going to offer a meat alternative snack today, Popcorn Tofu with Sriracha Dipping Sauce. You can always replace the tofu with chicken and follow the same recipe. The important part will be to have "golden nuggets" to go with this movie. I hope you like the food and the flick!
So grab your snacks and settle in for a good laugh and great movie!
Enjoy!
Stephen
Quarantine Boredom Buster:
Time for some science!
Egg in a bottle:
This is a fun science experiment you can do with just a few household items.
You will need:
A hardboiled egg, peeled
A glass bottle that with a mouth that is slightly smaller than the egg
Some hot water.
(Optional: matches and/or strip of paper to burn)
Instructions:
Carefully fill the glass bottle with the hot water and shake vigorously to warm up the glass.
Place the egg on the mouth of the bottle and make sure the opening is completely covered by the egg. Leave it like this for a while and the egg will slowly get sucked into the bottle. Note: If you have adult supervision, you can do this experiment faster with a lit match or burning paper instead of the hot water. Just light the match or paper and drop it in the bottle and place the egg on top to be pulled inside.
Why this works:
When we began, the air pressure inside the bottle was the same as the pressure outside of it. After we heated up the air inside the bottle, it expanded. When we place the egg on top of the bottle, it stops the air from coming back into the bottle as it cools down and contracts. The air pressure inside the bottle was lower than the air pressure outside of it. The higher air pressure out side of the bottle pushes the egg inside.
Cool Science Experiments Headquarters (<--- Click here) has a great video showing this experiment.
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