Tales of the Klondike (TV Mini Series) The Race for Number One (1981) User Reviews

A Yukon story by Jack London as a tribute to indefatigable dogs and men

[clanciai · 9/10 · 28 May 2023]

Orson Welles appeared as the narrator in quite a few of Jack London's stories adapted for television, and of course that triggered the show. I never saw any screening of any Jack London story that wasn't a success, and this one is something out of the ordinary at that: no brutality, no violence, no real drama, just the thriller of a perfectly fair competition, two gold diggers vying for being the first to get the rights of a newly discovered gold field, and they both have perfect dog teams. The major part of the film is the real race between the two across the frozen wilderness of Yukon, and it is tremendously captivating, especially as the dogs are constantly in the picture, working hard like hell. The end is not what you would have expected, but it is absolutely satisfactory - it couldn't have ended in any other way, and they all worked hard for it.