**_Euro version of Jack London’s classic with Charlton Heston_** During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897, two mail dispatchers travel by dog sled from Skagway, on the coast of southeast Alaska, to Dawson City over 400 miles north in the Yukon. One of the sled dogs, Buck, is fresh from California with no experience in snowy weather. Thorton (Heston) unwisely makes an enemy of the town mogul (George Eastman) while getting friendly with a beautiful saloon proprietor (Michèle Mercier). “The Call of the Wild” (1972) is a surprisingly good wilderness adventure with spectacular locations that could pass for a Western in the mold of “North to Alaska” (1960), albeit minus the slapstick humor. The later “North Star” (1996) and “The Claim” (2000) also come to mind, as does “The Mountain Men” (1980) due to Heston in the lead role and the wintery Western milieu. The fact that the film includes a dog as one of the protagonists brings to mind eye-rolling Disney flicks, but this isn’t Disney-fied at all. I should point out that Buck here is a German Shepherd whereas in the book he’s a St. Bernard–Scotch Shepherd mix. The runtime is just over 1 hour, 40 minutes. Beware of versions available on streaming (e.g. Tubi and Plex) that cut a full half hour in the last act. I’m talking about the sequences involving Thorton fraternizing with Calliope at the saloon and in a Western-styled bathtub, as we…

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