Welcome to RETRO REVISIT, where I’m going to be writing about forgotten films and old school gems from the twentieth century. Today I’m talking about a super rare film that was on my watchlist for years. It’s directed by the underrated Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, Ulzana’s Raid) and stars a fresh faced Keith Carradine (Southern Comfort, The Duelist), Ernest Borgnine (The Dirty Dozen, Wild Bunch) and one of cinema’s greatest “tough guys” Lee Marvin (Point Blank, Paint Your Wagon).
The Emperor Of The North Pole is an extremely hard to find film that's been on my watchlist for years. I finally came across a bootleg dvd online and took a chance on it. I usually wouldn’t endorse anything bootleg, but there really is no way of seeing this film otherwise. Needless to say that the quality of the transfer wasn’t great, the film on the other hand was terrific, making it easier to overlook the bootlegs shortcomings.
The story is set during the great depression and follows the legendary hobo “A No.1” (Marvin) who’s known and admired amongst his peers as being “the king of riding trains” (for free of course). He meets his match though when he comes across the ruthless and sadistic train conductor named “Shack” (Borgnine), who loves nothing more than to kill hobo’s for riding his train. A No.1 reluctantly takes a young upstart by the name of Cigaret (Carradine) under his wing and they try to ride Shacks' train to the end of the line.
The king of the hobo's A No. 1 (Marvin) and his young upstart rival Cigaret (Carradine).
Director Robert Aldrich made a name for himself with his ultra violent, but grounded workmanlike style of filmmaking. The violence in his films is often unflinchingly brutal and not for the faint of heart. For example the film starts with Borgnine’s crazy ass conductor character “Shack” mercilessly killing a hobo via a hammer to the head. Kinda sets the tone for the rest of the film regarding the type of violence at play. Borgnine doesn’t let up either, with his eyes bulging out of his skull, he pursues the hobo’s with maniacal reckless abandonment.
The film is not without humour though as Aldrich gets the most out of Marvin’s effortless swagger and charm. He was so good at playing that “cool headed tough guy with a dry sense of humour” type. A fresh faced Keith Carradine also tends to lighten the tone whenever on screen with his naive sense of invincibility and childlike energy.
The outrageous practical fight scenes and action set pieces set on the moving train are what truly makes this film special though. Marvin’s A No.1 character out foxing Borgnine was a delight and totally gave me Bugs Bunny vibes. The end fight is just the sort of epic symphony of violence that you would expect from Aldrich. Giant chains, metal bars and even axes are all in play, and all outside of a moving train!
There’s also an early graffiti influence here, as when the hobo’s finish a route or get to a specific landmark along the way, they will write their alias somewhere in the train yard. You can really draw parallels between graffiti writers of the 70s/80s/90s and their “war” with rail staff/transit police, and the disdain that the train conductors and hobos had for each other 40 years earlier.
I considered not writing about Emperor Of The North Pole as it’s not available to stream anywhere, the bootleg dvd’s are hard to find, and not the best quality. But after being blown away by it, I thought what better way to start my RETRO REVISIT musings than with a film about hobos fighting a rail crew during the depression era 30’s, whilst having all the nihilism of an early 70’s film. Fingers crossed it gets a wide release sooner rather than later.
Five Out Of Five Bulging Borgnine Eye's.
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