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Posted: **Thu Jan 23, 2025 10:34 am**

SPAWN OF THE NORTH
(Henry Hathaway, 1938)
Release date: 21 April 2025
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK premiere)

Pre-order here

From director Henry Hathaway (Peter Ibbetson) comes Spawn of the North, a thrilling adventure starring George Raft (You and Me), Henry Fonda (The Long Gray Line), and Dorothy Lamour (Road to Morocco).

Jim (Fonda), an Alaskan salmon fisherman, is reunited with his friend Tyler (Raft). When a dismayed Jim finds that Tyler has joined the gang of poachers that are stealing his stock, he enlists Tyler’s lover, Nicky (Lamour), to help him defeat the thieves without endangering his friend.

Co-written by Jules Furthman (Shanghai Express), and co-starring Akim Tamiroff (Dangerous to Know) and John Barrymore (Twentieth Century), Spawn of the North is filmmaking on a grand scale, utilising an expansive Alaskan set featuring a 375,000-gallon water tank, as well as extensive location work on genuine Alaskan salmon runs.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High definition remaster
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with screenwriter and author Kelly Goodner and filmmaker and film historian Jim Hemphill (2025)
• Tom Vincent on Loren L Ryder (2025): overview of the pioneering work by the sound engineer who won an Oscar for his contributions to Spawn of the North
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Phil Concannon, archival introductions by producer Albert Lewin and director Henry Hathaway, an archival interview with Hathaway, an archival production report, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK
• All features subject to change

#PHILE474B
BBFC cert: TBC
REGION B
EAN: 5060697924817

Posted: **Tue Apr 22, 2025 1:20 pm**

Final specs:

Posted: **Sat Mar 07, 2026 10:04 pm**

This seemed to be an odd film for Indicator to license, and now having seen it I can confirm it is an odd film for them to release. This is one of the many Hollywood films of the era that just stuffs too much into too little- - think movies like China Seas. Too many characters, too many tonal shifts, too much action and conflict and comic relief and so on. The film is so desperate to please everyone that we even get a musical number. And of course sixth billing after Barrymore really belongs to a trained seal, who too is on screen entirely too much. Funnily enough, directly before viewing this I watched Hathaway’s Brigham Young and while that’s no masterpiece, I was taken by the efficiency of all its component parts in telling its sprawling story in a fashion that reflects well on the best instincts of the studios. No such luck here. Kael (in a positive review?!) compares this to Hawks, which is so clueless I don’t even know what to say. In the context of a Hathaway box (which presumably these titles were at one point conceived as belonging to) it would be one of those inclusions that you eventually get around to and then immediately forget. As a stand alone, well, I bet this isn’t due for a low stock warning

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