The Trail of '98 (1928) works best when it is showing the characters' struggle to get through Alaska. It has some memorable characters too, the best of the lot being Tully Marshall's Salvation Jim, a religious but mischievous and kind old fellow. The climax is fabulous, with a lot more violence and bloodshed than one unacquainted with old movies would expect for a film of this vintage.Unfortunately, once our heroes get to the Klondike, we fall into deep melodramatic territory and not even good melodrama. The young lovers played by Ralph Forbes and Dolores Del Rio are the most uninteresting characters in the story, and the last half is almost solely dedicated to them. Fortunately, Del Rio gives it her all playing a woman who has to deal with a lover's broken promise, being raped, and then forced to prostitute herself to survive. On the other hand, Forbes is wooden and unconvincing as the repentant hero.This one's truly a mixed bag. Watch for the Marshall and the visuals.

Knowing that four men died making this movie makes this one a bit creepy to watch. Apparently back in the 'good old days', such losses were regrettable but acceptable. At about the same time people died making "The Trail of '98", several more were dying in order to make the infamous "Noah's Ark"! When you watch "The Trail of '98", you can sure imagine how so many men died--the film was stuffed full of insanely vivid stunts and location shoots that were just awful. The end result is truly amazing--one of the best of the silents-though the cost sure didn't justify this.The film begins with the country becoming hysterical with gold fever after the discovery of the metal in the Klondike region--all told with a series of vignettes. The first third of the film consists of this well as the insanely arduous trek to the gold fields. This is probably the most exciting part of the film--with one over-the-top stunt after another. If stuntmen weren't killed in the avalanche scene, then they probably perished in the hazardous trip down the rapids! I really would have loved to have seen this one on the big screen.The second portion of the film has more to do with life in the Klondike and its impact on the central characters. In particular, it focuses on Delores del Rio and her fiancé, Ralph Forbes. She is miserable and at the end of her ropes (justifiably so). He agrees to take her back home but, at the last minute, there's word of a new strike and he abandons her! She is forced to survive with nothing but her good looks--and it's very strongly implied she sells her body in order to eat. When he returns, rich, it looks like it's too late--she's not the same girl she once was and she's not in a particularly forgiving mood! There's quite a bit more to the film than this--including some harrowing scenes involving starvation and death due to exposure to the elements--and wolves apparently eating one guy! In fact, this brings me to one of the better aspects of the film--unflinching violence. Normally I don't like violent content in films, but in a film like this it IS necessary. A Post-Code film (1934 and later) would have eliminated the blood, softened the film and totally eliminated the insanely dangerous burning to death scene--but the impact would have been far less. Brilliantly done but also a film that might shock you as well! Overall, there's really nothing to dislike about the film other than its stupid waste of four lives due to some poorly done stunt-work--or perhaps stunts that were attempted that simply were too dangerous to even be attempted. Still, the end results are spectacular, there's no denying that.By the way, while VERY different in tone, imagine a double-feature with this and "The Gold Rush"! Wow.

Recently I had the chance to view this film on TCM and it is truly an epic. The storylines are realistic and the characters believable.Most impressive however is the exterior shots showing the Alaskan winter. I got cold just watching them! There are avalanches, blizzards and everything. It makes one appreciates the suffering those brave, if not foolish, souls endured in 1898.

The visuals are striking in this silent drama set in the 1898 Klondike gold rush. Whereas Chaplin treated the same setting for comedy in The Gold Rush (1925), with a little dramatic relief, this film concentrates on the hardships and thievery such stakes generally produce, with only a little comic relief. The opening shows people from various parts of the country planning to seek their fortune. All have hopes high, and we hear many say to their loved ones, "I'll bring back a million" as they board the ship taking them to Skagway, Alaska. The film follows only a few of the hopefuls. Karl Dane and George Cooper go into a partnership with Tully Marshall aboard ship; elderly couple Tenen Holtz and Emily Fitzroy plan to open a restaurant and bring distant relative Dolores Del Rio and her blind grandfather, etc. Del Rio meets Ralph Forbes on ship and they fall in love, but marriage will wait until he makes his fortune. Once in Skagway, each has to make the arduous trek to Dawson City through the Chilkoot pass, carrying their own food for the long journey and battling subfreezing temperatures, avalanches and raging rivers from melting snow in the spring. And because each literally must carry a ton of food, it's slow-going as they take a little at a time and return to repeat the process many times in order to travel a short distance. Del Rio's grandfather and others perish in an avalanche, and many turn back. But the main characters make it only to be told to go back: one in a thousand finds gold and there are a hundred men for every job. Del Rio and Forbes eventually decide to go back, but when news of another strike reaches town, he goes with Marshall, Dane and Cooper to try again, leaving Del Rio with Tenen and Fitzroy. The villain and claim-jumper, Harry Carey, buys return tickets for Tenen and Fitzroy only because he has eyes for Del Rio. (By then the Yukon River had been made navagable and a ship came in once a year.) Once they leave he arranges to take the unwilling Del Rio as a mistress with the aid of procuress Doris Lloyd. The men do find gold, and Forbes returns to an angry Del Rio, who forgives him when he tells her the past doesn't matter. But he still has to contend with Carey.