Emperor of the North

Director: Robert Aldrich

Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Lee Marvin

Year: 1973 Running Time: 119 mins Rating:

Director Robert Aldrich's blood-and-guts action adventure stars Lee Marvin as a train-hopping tramp. It's 1930s Oregon at the height of the Depression and Ernest Borgnine's brutal train guard Shack wants to put a stop to Marvin's freeloading ways. A young Keith Carradine also stars as Marvin's young protege: Trivia: The title refers to a joke among hobos during the Great Depression that the world's best hobo was "Emperor of the North Pole".

Review

Lee Marvin plays a train-hopping, freeloading tramp in Thirties Oregon who wants to become Emperor of the North Pole, in this archetypal Robert Aldrich blood-and-guts action adventure.

Ernest Borgnine plays a brutal train guard and Keith Carradine a disciple learning Marvin's easy-riding ways.

Fast and furious, but unpleasant and unconvincing.