North to Alaska

At its best, the rambunctious and erratic nature of this comedy western is charming, especially since the primary cast (especially John Wayne and Capucine as Angel) have enough charisma to keep the momentum going. It's erratic and messiness is also somewhat of a detriment; it's worth seeing, but the score reflects that for every good part there are as many aspects which don't work either.

A lot of this film feels like an attempt to recapture the magic of "Rio Bravo", but there's some real issues. Granger is no Dean Martin. Fabian is no Ricky Nelson. Henry Hathaway is no Howard Hawks. Capucine and Wayne actually have pretty good chemistry, so the film works more often than not ... but did they really need to insert "BOING" noises into every fight scene?

Fun John Wayne fare. Ridiculous romance, but I'm getting to expect that any more.

john wayne looks more comfortable in the alaskan wilderness than he does in the american southwest, in spite of that this movie carries only a minimally interesting plot, but it has a couple pretty charming characters.

Big sky, adventure and an uncharacteristic charm make this a fun Wayne non-Western.