Gold rush in the company of a brave St. Bernard in a classic Hollywood adventure masterpiece. Screening as part of the programme Animalistic Anomalous.
Call of the Wild
- Date:
- 21 Feb 2026,
19:00–20:50
- Age restrictions
- 18+
1935, William Wellman
United States
91 minutes, English with Russian subtitles
Starring: Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Jack Oakie, Buck the St. Bernard
T
In Alaska at the turn of the 20th century, fortunes are made overnight and lost just as quickly. Jack Thornton strikes it rich in the goldfields, only to lose everything at the card table. His old friend once saw a map to a rich gold strike and persuades Jack to find it, but they need equipment and a stake. The friends hope for a miracle, and fate brings them the semi-wild St. Bernard named Buck.
Shot from Call of the Wild, 1971
It’s probably one of the more interesting films from the first half of the ’30s.
— James Plath, Movie Metropolis
William Wellman’s The Call of the Wild bears little resemblance to Jack London’s original novel: the director is more interested in people than in nature. Buck, expressive and majestic, embodies a fusion of the real and the legendary. In his presence, Hollywood dreams shed their grotesqueness, revealing something primal and oddly timeless.
