Jack London
Jack London, also known as The Story of Jack London, is a 1943 American biographical film made by Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Alfred Santell and produced by Samuel Bronston with Joseph H. Nadel as associate producer, from a screenplay by Isaac Don Levine and Ernest Pascal based on the 1921 book The Book of Jack London by London's second wife, Charmian London.
Plot
The film follows scenes from the life of the writer-adventurer Jack London (Michael O'Shea, who somewhat resembled London) who was, among other things, oyster pirate, hobo, sailor, prospector and war correspondent. The film begins and ends with footage from 1943 of the launch of the liberty ship Jack London. In Oakland in 1890, after an accident involving a female colleague at the factory where he works, the young London quits and borrows money to buy a boat in which to illegally harvest oysters. The boat is soon impounded by police, one of his partners killed, and he is left without means. London signs on as an able seaman on a five-month trip to the Bering Sea, during which he begins to write. A brief stay at university proves frustrating as his stories are dismissed as "raw" despite London's defence of them as observed occurrences. He moves to the Yukon where he writes a story about a bar singer. Snowed in for months he writes Call of the Wild, which he sells to a publisher, who compares him to Rudyard Kipling, one of London's idols. The publisher introduces him to Charmian Kittredge (Susan Hayward). By the turn of the century London's career has taken off. He is asked by a newspaper to cover the Boer War, but on arrival at Plymouth, the war has already ended. London returns to Charmian.
More details
author | Ernest Pascal |
---|---|
contentLocation | England Japan |
director | Alfred Santell |
editor | William H. Ziegler |
events | Jack London seamanship |
genre | adventure historical |
keywords | army captain arrest bar singer bering sea boer war charmian kittredge factory foreign correspondent kill liberty ship michael o\'shea oakland raw materials russo-japanese war snowed in the white house turn of the century war correspondent yalu river |
musicBy | Freddie Rich |
nomination | Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score |
producer | Samuel Bronston |
productionCompany | Samuel Bronston Productions |
publisher | United Artists |
theme | biographical independent spy |