1928 - THE TRAIL OF 98, a spectacular silent film

Clarence Brown's spectacular epic about the Klondike gold rush was filmed on a large scale.  Almost every scene has a large scale quality to it.  The story involves a group traveling to Alaska in search of gold and encountering many hardships along the way.

 

The film was also a hardship to make behind the camera.  Thousands of men were employed in a spectacular scene climbing a mountain pass in -60 degree weather.  Another scene involved a river rapids stunt which ended up killing 4 stuntmen.  Watching the out of control river with boats sailing down it is impressive and rather frightening.

The film stars early Harry Carey and Dolores Del Rio.  Carey went on to be associated with John Ford early in Ford's career.  Del Rio was one of the most beautiful women to grace the screen.

This silent film has that weird synchronized sound track where there is music and background noise but no actual actors mouthing dialog.  Still, this is an extremely impressive film which ranks up there with other epic film.

The screenplay was by Joseph Farnham. Benjamin Glazer, Robert Service and Waldemar Young, the film runs 97 minutes.