Themes: Love Triangles, Prospectors and Land Rights
Main Cast: Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Richard Barthelmess, Margaret Lindsay, William Farnum, Harry Carey
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
Plot
The fourth of five movie versions of the rugged Rex Beach novel of the same name, 1942's The Spoilers stars Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, and Randolph Scott. The plot, involving the cheating of Alaskan gold rush prospectors by a crooked gold commissioner, requires that Scott play a villain, Alexander McNamara. Prospector Roy Glennister (Wayne) is continually persecuted by McNamara, who has the law on his side, until the two decide to settle their dispute man-to-man in a spectacular reel-long fistfight. La Dietrich plays saloon-hall gal Cherry Mallote, who becomes the romantic bone of contention between Glennister and McNamara. William Farnum, who played John Wayne's role in the original 1914 filmization of The Spoilers, plays a key supporting role in this remake; also on hand in a cameo is poet Robert W. Service, of The Shooting of Dan McGrew fame. Listen for a cute inside joke at the beginning of the picture, invoking the name of co-producer Lee Marcus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Spoilers is a real corker of an Old West adventure-cum-romance, Alaskan style. Just about everything comes together the way it's supposed to in Spoilers, and does so in a lean 88 minutes that never feels rushed. Director Ray Enright uses that temporal economy to its best advantage; Spoilers moves at a quick but not nervy pace, taking just enough time here and there to slow down for a lovely moment with Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne or to linger for just a second on a particularly amusing grimace on Harry Carey's face. It establishes the world of the Alaskan gold rush with a few well-placed, concise lines and some shots of an elaborately clad Dietrich navigating the muddy streets via a few well-placed two-by-fours; nothing is belabored, simply shown and established so that the film can then move forward. Enright is helped in all of this by a cast that couldn't be bettered. Dietrich is heavenly, less morose than she's sometimes forced to be, a happier and more hopeful presence; even when pigheadedly letting her pride get in the way of her eventual reunion with John Wayne, her melancholy is less tragic than is often the case. For his part, Wayne displays a magnificent chemistry with her, and it brings out some of his most surprising line readings -- always natural and correct, yet somehow a bit unexpected. And as the third side of the romantic triangle, Randolph Scott is a wonderful heel. Spoilers had excitement, adventure, romance, comedy -- in short, it's a hell of a lot of fun. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
John B. Goodman - Art Director, Jack Otterson - Art Director, Lee Marcus - Associate Producer, Vera West - Costume Designer, Ray Enright - Director, Clarence Kolster - Editor, Hans Salter - Composer (Music Score), Charles Previn - Musical Direction/Supervision, Milton Krasner - Cinematographer, Frank Lloyd - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Edward Ray Robinson - Set Designer, Eddie Parker - Stunts, Tom Reed - Screenwriter, Lawrence Hazard - Screenwriter, Rex Beach - Book Author
The Spoilers is a 1942 film directed by Ray Enright. The movie is set in Nome, Alaska during the 1898 Gold Rush, with Marlene Dietrich as Cherry Malotte, Randolph Scott as Alexander McNamara, and John Wayne as Roy Glennister, and culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight between McNamara and Glennister.
The Spoilers was adapted to screen by Lawrence Hazard from the 1906 Rex Beach novel. Film versions also appeared in 1914, 1923 (with Noah Beery, Sr. as McNamara and Anna Q. Nilsson as Malotte), 1930 (with Gary Cooper as Glennister and Betty Compson as Malotte; this is the only time that Gary Cooper and John Wayne played the same role in two different films), and 1955 (with Anne Baxter as Malotte, Jeff Chandler as Glennister, and Rory Calhoun as McNamara). Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, and John Wayne also appeared together that same year in a movie called Pittsburgh. Remarkably, Scott was billed above Wayne in both movies, even though Wayne's role was larger and more important in each.
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