JohnHowardReid Metro's Trail of '98 (available on a superb Warner Archive DVD - I repeat, Warner Archive! Don't ask me what an M-G-M movie is doing on a Warner Archive DVD, but presumably Metro sold the movie to Warners for a remake) is a great run for the money. The story and characters are much the same - as are the locations - of many other similar movies. Despite its name cast, including alluring Dolores Del Rio, competent Ralph Forbes as the hero, Karl Dane, Tully Marshall and Harry Carey (a superb villain), the story, the background and the locations were publicized by M-G-M, rather than the cast. In fact, it was Robert W. Service's name alone that the studio featured on many posters. Coming right at the tail end of the silent period (it was issued with a sound track of music and effects), the superbly made, bitingly atmospheric and thrillingly enacted Trail of '98 with its impressive cast, stunning locations and hard-hittingly sardonic story (perhaps its get-rich-at-all-costs theme was too uncomfortably close to home for stock market jittery 1929 audiences) failed to recover its huge production costs. Although director Clarence Brown managed to retrieve his reputation with Anna Christie (1930), he was never again entrusted with a budget of comparable size, although he went half-close with Anna Karenina (1935), The Rains Came (1939) and The Yearling (1946) - although part of the latter's expenses of course were racked up by Victor Fleming in Metro's failed 1941 attempt to film the Marjorie Rawlings' novel.

MissSimonetta The Trail of '98 (1928) works best when it is showing the characters' struggle to get through Alaska. It has some memorable characters too, the best of the lot being Tully Marshall's Salvation Jim, a religious but mischievous and kind old fellow. The climax is fabulous, with a lot more violence and bloodshed than one unacquainted with old movies would expect for a film of this vintage.Unfortunately, once our heroes get to the Klondike, we fall into deep melodramatic territory and not even good melodrama. The young lovers played by Ralph Forbes and Dolores Del Rio are the most uninteresting characters in the story, and the last half is almost solely dedicated to them. Fortunately, Del Rio gives it her all playing a woman who has to deal with a lover's broken promise, being raped, and then forced to prostitute herself to survive. On the other hand, Forbes is wooden and unconvincing as the repentant hero.This one's truly a mixed bag. Watch for the Marshall and the visuals.

Michael_Elliott Trail of '98, The (1928) *** (out of 4) One of the best of the "last period of silent films" takes a look at various characters who leave their peaceful homes and go into the dangerous and deadly Klondike in hopes of striking gold. Delores Del Rio and Ralph Forbes play a young couple who have everything ahead of them but the husband's greed gets them into one dangerous situation after another. This MGM production was highly troubled to say the least and a lot of this is due to a dangerous stunt where four stunt men were killed trying to ride boats down some very dangerous rapids. Two of the bodies were never found and if you've seen the documentary Hollywood there's a very haunting story about how badly the stunt went wrong. No film is worth anyone being killed and when you see this scene and the men who were killed you can't help but wonder why anyone would even attempt to ride these rapids and seeing the stuff in the actual film was quite eerie. The film certainly makes you feel the bitter cold of the territory as director Brown has no problem at putting you right into the middle of this gold craze. I really enjoyed the start of the film as we travel a map of the U.S. and hit various states where we see the people hearing about the gold rush and leaving their homes. The next sequence has then in San Francisco where they're about to board a ship and on the ship we see how these characters all plan on making millions yet none of them realize the danger and terror that is ahead. I thought the film did a terrific job at making you feel and understand what was striking the country during 1898 when people thought their futures were in Alaska yet none of them realized the only thing waiting their was death. The "stories" of the characters really don't add up to too much as it's pretty much your typical disaster film stuff. What does work is the amazing footage of the wilderness as well as some terrific action scenes. The before mentioned rapid scene look amazing but knowing four people were killed takes away the entertainment. Another scene has hundreds of people being killed during a snow slide and I must say that while the effect is easily seen today, the scene still packs quite a punch and the effect certainly grabs one. The cast do a fine job with their roles but then again the film isn't too worried about the story or their performances. The main thing going for THE TRAIL OF '98 is the amazing stunts and the way that the director really puts you right there just as if this was a documentary on the events.

Arthur Hausner The visuals are striking in this silent drama set in the 1898 Klondike gold rush. Whereas Chaplin treated the same setting for comedy in The Gold Rush (1925), with a little dramatic relief, this film concentrates on the hardships and thievery such stakes generally produce, with only a little comic relief. The opening shows people from various parts of the country planning to seek their fortune. All have hopes high, and we hear many say to their loved ones, "I'll bring back a million" as they board the ship taking them to Skagway, Alaska. The film follows only a few of the hopefuls. Karl Dane and George Cooper go into a partnership with Tully Marshall aboard ship; elderly couple Tenen Holtz and Emily Fitzroy plan to open a restaurant and bring distant relative Dolores Del Rio and her blind grandfather, etc. Del Rio meets Ralph Forbes on ship and they fall in love, but marriage will wait until he makes his fortune. Once in Skagway, each has to make the arduous trek to Dawson City through the Chilkoot pass, carrying their own food for the long journey and battling subfreezing temperatures, avalanches and raging rivers from melting snow in the spring. And because each literally must carry a ton of food, it's slow-going as they take a little at a time and return to repeat the process many times in order to travel a short distance. Del Rio's grandfather and others perish in an avalanche, and many turn back. But the main characters make it only to be told to go back: one in a thousand finds gold and there are a hundred men for every job. Del Rio and Forbes eventually decide to go back, but when news of another strike reaches town, he goes with Marshall, Dane and Cooper to try again, leaving Del Rio with Tenen and Fitzroy. The villain and claim-jumper, Harry Carey, buys return tickets for Tenen and Fitzroy only because he has eyes for Del Rio. (By then the Yukon River had been made navagable and a ship came in once a year.) Once they leave he arranges to take the unwilling Del Rio as a mistress with the aid of procuress Doris Lloyd. The men do find gold, and Forbes returns to an angry Del Rio, who forgives him when he tells her the past doesn't matter. But he still has to contend with Carey.