Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist and journalist best known for his novels White Fang, The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and his semi-autobiographical Martin Eden. He wrote hundreds of short stories in addition to 50 fiction and nonfiction novels. By his late 20s, he was the highest-paid writer in the United States with multiple sources crediting him as the first American writer to earn more than $1 million from his literary output. It was a genuine rags to riches story since his personal quest for gold in the Klondike earned him a reported $4.50 plus a bad case of scurvy.
He sought the “yellow dust” to escape from childhood poverty in Oakland, California, where he worked at age 14 in a cannery featuring 16-hour shifts. In the gold fields of Alaska, London discovered more harsh reality rather than wealth, but he turned the knowledge into his own private gold mine back home.
In 1903, he published “The Call of the Wild,” a story about a dog named Buck — a mix of St. Bernard and Scotch collie — who is stolen from the comforts of domesticity and introduced to the wilds of the Klondike.
It is Buck’s story, but along the way he encounters the human, John Thornton, who will show him kindness and help him survive. It all equals well written adventure with the human-beast connection central to the tale. It also has a somewhat happy ending. John Thornton dies, but Buck, his mate – a wolf – and their offspring survive in the wild. Jack London’s own ending was more harrowing. The habits accrued along the way – heavy drinking and a reliance on readily available “medical” alternatives such as opium, heroin, cocaine – contributed to his demise in 1916 at the age of 40.
His novel about the noble dog Buck was first transferred to film in 1923, a silent version. The book was contracted by Hal Roach, a producer who here-to-for had specialized in slapstick comedy. This original silent adaptation starred Jack Mulhall, Walter Long, and Frank Butler.
A later, and more popular, version was released in 1935 starring Clark Gable. Directed by William Wellman and produced by Daryl F. Zanuck, it also starred Jack Oakie, Reginald Owen, and Sidney Toler. Because of Gable’s star power, this second film’s emphasis is shifted to the John Thornton character. It includes an invented love story involving Gable and actress Loretta Young.
As a side note, Ms. Young revealed in the mid-1960s that the young baby girl she had adopted in 1937 was in fact Gable’s child conceived while the movie was being made.
It was the final film released by Twentieth Century before it merged with Fox, and it was remade into a 20th Century Fox film in 1945 with a reissue. From those first two films there have been many other adaptations, including animated versions.
Other versions include:
–The Call of the Wild (1972): An international production starring Charlton Heston.
–The Call of the Wild (1976): A TV movie starring John Beck.
–The Call of the Wild (1994): A TV movie starring Ricky Schroder.
–The Call of the Wild (1997): A Canadian TV version starring Rutger Hauer.
–The Call of the Wild (2000): A 13-episode TV series starring Canadian actor Nick Mancuso.
–The Call of the Wild (2020): An adaptation starring Harrison Ford that received some criticism at the time since the character of Buck was mainly a computer-generated image (CGI).