Emperor of the North (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE is my favorite movies, and LEE MARVIN is one of my favorite actors. I have been waiting for years for this movie to come out on DVD. I hope the DVD includes features such as the movie trailer, and the "making of feature" (which I have seen for sale separately on video tape), and a photo gallery.
Why is this my favorite movie? I grew up where the real A-No.1 hung out, where his 12 books on being a hobo were published, and where he finally settled down, and died. A-No.1 was a real life folk hero featured in a college class on American Folklore. A-No.1 a.k.a. LEON RAY LIVINGSTON (1872-1944) was born in San Francisco, and at the young age of 11 young LEON RAY LIVINGSTON ran away from home and took to the rails. He had a done something, he couldn't recall exactly what it was, and feared that his parents would punish him, and rather than face his father he ran away being inspired by the song, "THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN." My great grandfather (The Jew) lived in a rooming house in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, where A-No.1 would stay when he was in town, and where A-No.1 would meet his future wife. My mother's father (Steve German) rode the rails when he first came to this country in 1910. My great uncle Henry L. spent most of his life living as a hermit in tar paper shacks and hollowed out earth mounds. When the Gypsies came to town, I would go with him to listen to the music around the campfire at night. As a young kid I (Grahamqckr) had to ride the rails as well. It will remain the happiest time of my life being chased by railroad dicks though train yards. And I worked in a flour mill where the owner Harry Moffatt remembered seeing A-No.1 when he would come into town. A-No.1's books inspired my father (Erie Ted) who was a teenager in the 19-teens to run away from home on a number of occasions. He would end up in places like Canada, and Mexico, and his mother would have to send money for his ticket home.
The books of LEON RAY LIVINGSTON (a.k.a. A-No.1) published in Cambridge Springs and Erie, Pennsylvania, by A-No.1 Printing Company are as follows: "Life and Adventures of America's Most Celebrated Tramp! "A-No.1 The Champion Tramp Of The World" The Actual True Life Adventures of A-No.1. The famous tramp who traveled 500,000 miles for $7.61. A-No.1 the King of the Hoboes. A-No.1 Leon Ray Livingston."
1. Life and Adventure of A-No. 1.
2. Hobo-Camp-Fire-Tales
3. The Curse of Tramp Life.
4. The Trail of the Tramp.
5. The Adventures of a Female Tramp.
6. The Ways of the Hobo.
7. The Snare of the Road.
8. From Coast to Coast with Jack London.
9. The Mother of All Hoboes.
10. The Wife I Won.
11. Traveling with Tramps.
12. Here and There with A-No. 1.
He gained fame seldom equaled by anyone who devoted almost a lifetime to travel. He set out to see the world when he was only eleven and for thirty-one years and four months he traveled every where. He said of himself, "I thought when I ran away from my home in California that I'd see everything in one day, but I was wrong and it took me thirty-one years to find that out."
LEON wrote articles published in the 1890's which would basis of his book series. LIVINGSTON published twelve books, which sold by the hundreds of thousands. He turned to the lecture platform when his traveling days were over and spoke before thousands of schools and churches always on the same theme - "Home is Your Best Place." "KING OF ROAD" - A life of wandering and traveling, which led into an example for young people through books and lecturing "Beware of the Open Road." LEON RAY LIVINGSTON, became famous as "A-No.1 the Tramp. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft asked to meet him.
He soon realized he was trapped in the life of being a hobo, but realized that many young kids, both boys and girls would run-away, and got killed on the trains. He spent much time giving lectures on the evils of running away from home a become a hobo. He was the greatest success story of someone who took to the trains, and learned to be a hobo. A-No.1 would not admit it, but he actually taught many people how to hop fright trains, because he spent much time trying to convince young people to go back home. From money from his books and lectures, he bought one way tickets home for these kids. His greatest success story was a young JACK LONDON who when home to lead the straight and narrow to live as an author. Many young hoboes may also have written this moniker on water tanks, railroad freight buildings, and chalk it on box cars. At one time it was more common to find "A-No.1' inscribed somewhere, than "KILLROY WAS HERE!" A-No.1 In hobo lingo it means "number one man," and later it came to mean, that you are "all right (or okay) with me." The thumbs up sign, "A Number One."
JACK LONDON whose "Moniker" or hobo's nickname was SAILOR JACK or CIGARET. In the book "FROM COAST TO COAST WITH JACK LONDON," by A-No.1, he finally gets tired of hearing CIGARET run at the mouth all the time, trying to maintain the character of JACK LONDON, so he grabs him, and throws him off back of a moving train. So line in the movie (EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE) has real meaning, LEE MARVIN says as A-No.1 to CIGARET (KEITH CARRADINE) (to his face.), "Hey kid you got no class......(Kids face goes blank as he is suddenly grabbed, and tossed from the moving train into the stream below. The kids face rises out of the water. A-No.1 walks back in the car.).......Hits the bums kid. Run like the devil. Get a tin can and take up mooching. Knock on back doors for a nickel. Tell them your story. Make em weep. You could have been a meat eater kid (A-No.1 pointing at him.).......But you didn't listen to me when I laid it down......(Kid swings hand in water.)......Stay off the tracks. Forget it. Its a bum's world for a bum. Your never be Emperor of the North Pole Kid. You had the juice kid, but not the heart, and they go together. Your all gab, and no feel, and nobody can teach you that, not even A-No.1. So stay off the train, she'll throw you under for sure. Remember me for that. So long kid."
EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE never mentions that the LEE MARVIN character is an author of books. The real A-No.1 kept a series of travel journal notebooks on his person, where as the LEE MARVIN A-No.1 is just living his life. "FROM COAST TO COAST" is an interesting adventure novel. It centers around the hobo partnership of the author, LEON RAY LIVINGSTON, a.k.a. A-No.1, and JACK LONDON (who was a slightly better writer than A-No.1). They travel from New York City out to San Francisco by rail, and have a crazy an adventure on the way. A-No.1 feels very conflicted about his life on the road as a railroad tramp. He clearly hates it, yet cannot quit the life. All of A-No.1's books are a must-read for people who are interested in the psychology of the hobo-tramp, language and culture of the period. JACK (JOHN GRIFFRITH) LONDON (1876-1916) in his book, "THE ROAD-HOBOES THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT," published in 1907, does not even mention A-No.1 once in the long list of hoboes and tramps that he encountered! However, he does talk about SKYSAIL JACK who in the movie only rode SHACK'S train only in a coffin.
Some minor technical problems with the movie are:
(1) The radio speech of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as heard in SMILE's caboose took place on a different date than in the movie, October 22, 1933. The fireside chat from President Franklin Roosevelt is from 28 April 1935. Hey, it works for the scene, and for the move as a whole.
(2) ERNEST BORGNINE who plays the murderous bug-eyed SHACK.......A Shack
is a brakeman, and not a conductor. The brakeman is the occupant of a caboose. Shack's master is a conductor. SHACK may have started working as a brakeman, and retained the name of SHACK. BORGNINE is a sadist, who sports a menacing grin, and believes that the hoboes are the scum of the earth. He will sledgehammer anyone to death who thinks they can get a free ride on his train. SHACK's claim to fame is, no one gets a free ride on his train unless they want to be dead. LEE MARVIN is laconic, immensely proud to be a hobo, and proud enough to claim he can ride any train for free. The real A-No.1 was also known by everyone he encountered, and in a short time it was like he had a rail pass to ride any train in the country for "free" and no one would put him off. Even in JACK LONDON's chapter article and book, "THE ROAD-HOBOES THAT PASS IN THE NIGHT," mentions that "SHACK" is a "brakemen" who don't bother them, and let them (the hoboes) sleep all night.

(3) CHARLES TYNER who plays CRACKER........A Cracker (1) - A contemptuous name for a railroad worker who works below or underneath a higher grade person. A slang term for poor southern white trash. Cracker (2) - One who is lazy, brutal, inquisitive, intolerant, illiterate, ignorant, and of the lowest class. CRACKER is just CRACKER, and we love him for that. HARRY GAESAH who played COALY which is a the railroad name of the fireman. They shovel coal like the stokers on a steam ship, and everything around them would become black like coal. MALCOLM ATTERBURY who played the engineer which were known by the name of HOGGER.
An early draft of the script for the 1973 Robert Aldrich classic THE EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE, screen play by CHRISTOPHER KNOPF, the movie takes place in 1905 rather than the great depression. GEORGE C. SCOTT was originally asked to play A-No.1 because of his work in the movie FLIM FLAM MAN, but turned it down. GEORGE C. SCOTT would have been wonderful as A-No.1, but LEE MARVIN has become the real movie version of A-No.1, forgetting the fact that the real A-No.1 LEON RAY LIVINGSTON was short, had a moustache,...Read more›

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A legendary depression-era hobo and his young accomplice battle a sadistic railroad worker in a determined bid to hitch a ride.

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