Spawn of the North (Blu-ray)

From Henry Hathaway, the outstanding director of The Shepherd of the Hills, The House on 92nd Street, Kiss of Death, Rawhide, 23 Paces to Baker Street, Nevada Smith and True Grit, comes this sprawling epic starring screen greats Henry Fonda (The Ox-Bow Incident), George Raft (They Drive by Night), Dorothy Lamour (My Favorite Brunette), John Barrymore (Twentieth Century) and Akim Tamiroff (The General Died at Dawn). This wild-eyed “western of the North” is the tale of one man’s transformation from fisherman to vigilante, forced by honor to stand alone against Russian pirates. It was the early 1900s, and Alaska was proving itself to be the last of the American frontiers. Men and women of all backgrounds raced to make a better life for themselves in this virgin territory, while others strove to rob its riches and claim its beauty as their own. Jim Kimmerlee (Fonda) just wanted to make an honest living off of the rich Alaskan salmon fisheries. He was about to find out, however, that whether in friendship, love or war, frontiers are neither easily forged nor soon forgotten. Beautifully shot in glorious black-and-white by Charles Lang (A Farewell to Arms) with a memorable score by Dimitri Tiomkin (Rio Bravo).