Orphans of the North (DVD)

Grizzled old prospector "Bedrock" Brown searches the Alaskan frontier for his friend Hank Jones, who disappeared during an expedition. He stops at a trading post, where Hank's young daughter Joy waits for news of her father's whereabouts. Disheartened that Bedrock has been unable to find him, she sneakily follows the frontiersman out into the Alaskan mountains. Bedrock vows to deliver the little girl back home, but his boat is capsized by melting glaciers. Now the pair must navigate the dangerous Alaskan ice caps on foot, and with a blizzard fast approaching, they both may not make it back alive...

Orphans of the North is one of several beautifully-shot nature pictures made by Norman Dawn, billed as a "famous explorer and producer" in the credits. Dawn is more recognized today for his contributions to the advancement of the art of motion pictures. His career actually goes back to the silent era, where he notably pioneered the usage of glass, or matte, shots in his film Missions of California (1907). These innovations led to the widespread use of matte paintings in film, which was the industry standard for decades until the arrival of CGI (computer-generated imagery.) He was also the first filmmaker to use the rear projection effect, a technique essential for everything from Ray Harryhausen stop-motion spectacles to simple driving scenes. Despite his advances in the field of special effects, Dawn was seen as too ambitious by the major studios, and he only found success making nature or wildlife pictures for independent distributors. These included movies like Tundra (1936) and Bowanga, Bowanga (1951). Orphans of the North is by far the rarest, having begun in 1937 as Taku, so named because it was shot on Alaska's Taku River. The actors were all local amateurs, and the slim storyline was mostly an excuse to showcase Alaska's wildlife. This version languished without distribution for several years before it was picked up by producers Fred McConnell and George M. Merrick, who added 15 minutes of footage from Dawn's previous films. Retitled Orphans of the North, it received a short release from Monogram Pictures and disappeared soon afterwards, never to be seen on TV, VHS or DVD. Alpha Video is proud to present this lost classic, newly unearthed from our vaults!

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