Pamela De Graff Emperor Of The North Pole may not have the requisite look, feel, or scary music, but it is very much a horror movie. Instead of the supernatural, the monsters are men. The killer is no cloaked slasher striking by night, but a crazy-eyed, obsessed railroad man, insane with twisted rage, filled with frothing blood lust, armed with cruel and unusual instruments of punishment. He gets his kicks by smashing in skulls and he strikes in broad daylight unrestrained, with complete impunity. This incongruity - a horrifying film that masquerades as a suspense drama by telling an unconventional, real-world story -makes for a truly weird viewing experience. Adding to this larger than life archetypal characters, bizarre, colorful monologues, and a deceptively simple plot about a symbolic evil vs. slightly-less-evil struggle, results in a riveting, original movie.Pastoral Oregon locations set an illusorily bucolic tone in the opening shots of Emperor Of The North Pole as a steam locomotive winds its way through rural woodlands. This is Union Pacific's Number 19 freight and it has a madman on board.It is 1933, the depths of the Great Depression and 1/4 of Americans are unemployed. Many of those are literally starving to death. A mobile army of homeless men roams the country looking for temporary work, stealing rides on the railroads. They are nomads who live by no law but their own and dedicated to their destruction is the Railroad Man. On the Portland route, that man is Shack (Borgnine), a ruthless conductor who takes the "paying passengers only" rule with deadly reverence.Railroads don't like it when you stow away on board or trespass on their tracks. Today they employ a battalion of federally licensed, armed railroad detectives to catch you, and these men behave like real bastards when they do. But in 1933 even the railroads were hard up. His actions condoned by underfunded, undermanned, corrupt law enforcement, Shack takes the job of controller, making sure that no one rides for free. Drawing from his own sadistic black book of dirty tricks he patrols his train like a monstrous gargoyle, perpetually on the lookout for bums.Relentless and Argus-eyed, Shack is a real-life Terminator; he can't be reasoned with, he can't be bargained with, he has no mercy to appeal to, he is hard to kill, and he will never, ever stop. Shack has a savage arsenal of bizarre, creepy weapons at his disposal, but his favorite is the engineer's heavy, double-headed club mallet.When Shack, creeping along the speeding 19's boxcar catwalk finds a tramp riding on the frame of a hopper car, he sneaks up on the hapless man. The bum, enjoying a sandwich, is blissfully unaware of the danger. With a fell swoop of the club hammer, Shack smashes the man's skull. His head laid open, dangling between cars, the hobo begs for his life before being sucked under. In a spectacular, graphic sequence the rail cars' sharp under-hangs ensnare the tramp and violently wad him up like a piece of garbage before the heavy wheels slice him in half like a biscuit.For the Railroad Man, his pension and gold watch are at stake. For the hobo, it is a matter of survival. But for both, there is also pride. Shack is determined the hobos not see him as a free ride. He is humiliated and taunted by the hobo community when they marginalize him by defying his rules.The hobos hate Shack, but they also want to prove themselves to each other. To be a master hobo, a skilled man of the road who can survive in style and avoid arrest is to become "Emperor of the North Pole," king of the tracks. The term is a cynical self-deprecation. Penniless, desperate, with no past, no future, no clout and nobody to vouch for them, the hobos perceive that they lead a futile, near meaningless, existence. The significance of the distinction is that anybody presiding over the North Pole would be emperor of a worthless desert.In this context, the alpha male tramp of the West Coast hobo "jungle" camps is the admired A-Number One (Marvin). A#1 is determined to prove himself Emperor Of The North Pole by successfully riding notorious Shack's Number 19 all the way to Portland. He is dogged by a swaggering, inept, tag-along, upstart named "Cigaret" (Carradine). Using numerous tactics to sneak aboard and avoid detection on the 19, A#1 is caught between Shack's criminal tactics, and Cigraret's malicious recklessness. Despite A#1's paternal attempts to mentor him, Cigaret continuously betrays A#1 out of a sense of misguided competition.In trying to derail Shack, A#1 and Cigaret nearly derail the entire train. To distract Shack and misdirect him, A#1 and Cigaret do their best to compromise and professionally ruin him with a series of sidetracking stunts. But the stunts are not mere jokes. They are heavy, malicious felonies which endanger the hobos, other trains, and entire crews with imminent bloody death.While the "'Bo's" believe Shack deserves killin', their actions justify Shack's murderous rampage as well. Like a runaway train, the perverse feud escalates beyond the boundaries of any sensible limits. The locomotive steams and roars, The whistle shrieks. The pistons churn. The black smoke streams into the sky, The trio of enraged men highball over the steel rails. Their murderous plots against each other descend into a maelstrom of frothy, blood-soaked madness. As they barrel along among the swaying cars of the speeding train, the inflamed trio hurtles toward an ultimate gladiatorial showdown to determine who will be Emperor Of The North Pole.

rsubber "Emperor of the North" is an heroic film. They don't make too many like this one. If you plan to watch it, do yourself a favor: plan to watch it twice. Watch it once so you get the picture: a tramp named A-No. 1 (Marvin) is a devil-may-care legendary figure in the hobo camps. He teaches a thing or three to the inexperienced Cigaret (Carradine). He challenges the thuggish railroad policeman, Shack (Borgnine), there's a supremely brutal fight on a rolling flatcar, the best 'bo wins, he finally rides Shack's "No. 19" to Portland, and, you guessed it, A-No. 1 is the king of the road. Sounds like a few of the "B" movies you've seen over the years? All routinely imaginable stuff, but Marvin's imperial performance stirs the imagination. Watch it again. Watch Mr. Marvin show you everything you ever wanted to know about classic heroism of the spirit. See him surpassing his impoverished circumstances to enjoy a rich life, embracing independence, rugged optimism, casually competent leadership, generous mentoring, and the dauntless strength of a Viking in mortal combat. Finally, A-No. 1 abandons the feckless Cigaret. "You had the juice, kid, but you didn't have the heart!" A-No. 1 rides off, northward, soaring, in high majesty, singing his victory. American hobo. American hero. Emperor of the North.Read more on my blog: Barley Literate by Rick

ktowny I saw this at the famous Genesee in Waukegan, IL when I was a wee lad and its had a mystical allure ever since. Maybe because as a wee lad, a movie about hobos riding the rails is an off-kilter idea. It kind of stuck with me and I've always wanted to see it again but never got around to it. Then lo and behold it was on AMC or TMC a few weekends ago. No boy was all extra happy was he. However, this time it was a bit of a let down. The story follows two hobos, A-No 1 (Marvin) and a rookie (Carradine) who are trying to ride a mean conductor's (Borginine) train to Portland. The conductor, named Shack, is renowned among rail riding hobos as the meanest SOB there is and has no qualms about murdering the freeloader if he has to. He uses various weapons to keep the hobos off his train, some of which are quite ingenious, like tying a window weight to a rope and feed it under the car to bounce off the ties and pummel a man who is riding under a box car. Plot wise, there isn't much to the movie. Just the three guys playing cat and mouse on the train and meeting all sorts of hobo folk along the way. What makes this movie worth checking out is seeing Borginine busting a blue vein when he gets ticked off. He turns from an old grump to a ornery old cuss bent on destruction. Gotta love it. One thing that struck me, and I'm not sure what it is about movies made in the 70s and set in the 30s, but the 1930s catch phrases sound very awkward coming out of the actors mouths. This is also the case if you listen to some of the dialogue in The Sting. Anyway, taken as a whole, this one is mildly entertaining with a few worthwhile scenes but nothing to rave about.

ma-cortes Very good picture and efficiently made by Robert Aldrich ; however , this was originally a project for Sam Peckinpah . The title ¨ Emperor of the North¨ refers 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 be ruling over a wasteland . This film was made and originally released as "Emperor of the North Pole" after initial screenings , Twentieth Century Fox executives feared that audiences might think the title indicated a Christmas movie or an Arctic exploration story and so shortened the title to "Emperor of the North" . 1933 during the height of great depression in the US, and the land is full of people who are now homeless . Driven to desperation by the economic depression of 1930s America , a subculture of hobos hopped freight trains to get from place to place in search of jobs , handouts, or even to take it easy sometimes . Those people, commonly called "hobos", are truly hated by Shack (Ernest Borgnine), a sadistical railway conductor who announces he will kill any tramp who attempts to cop his train and swore that no hobo will ride his locomotive for free . Well, no-one but the legendary Number One (Lee Marvin) and a young hobo named Cigaret (Keith Carradine's character Cigaret is named after the moniker that Jack London adopted on the road) are ready to put their lives at wager to become national legends , as the first persons who survived the trip on Shack's known train .Tough hobo Lee Marvin & sadistic conductor Ernest Borgnine meet in the fight of the century , both of whom give excellent performances . Emperor of the North Pole depicts a microcosm of this subculture set in Oregon, and actually used the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern railroad which was taken up in 1994 like so much other trackage around the country. Thus, this motion picture serves as not only a look into an important aspect of American history, but into a specific piece of it in the Pacific Northwest . Interesting and tense screenplay is based in part on the books 'The Road' by Jack London and 'From Coast to Coast with Jack London' . It was Robert Aldrich's intention that the characters played by Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin and Keith Carradine represented the Establishment, the Anti-Establishment and the Youth of Today respectively . Nice cinematography by Joseph Biroc reflecting appropriately the 3os and Great Depression , being stunningly filmed in Oregon. Lively and evocative musical score by Frank De Vol , Aldrich's usual, including a wonderful song by Marty Robbins . Martin Ritt was originally slated to direct but was fired from the production , then Sam Peckinpah was approached next but he couldn't agree with the producers on money. The project was then offered to, and accepted by, Robert Aldrich who gave a tense and brilliant direction . Aldrich began writing and directing for TV series in the early 1950s, and directed his first feature in 1953 (Big Leaguer ,1953). Soon thereafter he established his own production company and produced most of his own films, collaborating in the writing of many of them . Directed in a considerable plethora of genres but almost all of his films contained a subversive undertone . He was an expert on warlike (Dirty Dozen , The Angry Hills , Attack , Ten seconds to hell) and Western (The Frisko kid , Ulzana's raid, Apache , Veracruz , The last sunset) . Raing : Above average , it's a must see and a standout in its genre