''The Viking'' (french: Ceux du Viking), also known as ''White Thunder'' and ''Vikings of the Ice Field'', is a 1931 Newfoundland/American

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

about sealing directed by

George Melford George H. Melford (born George Henry Knauff, February 19, 1877 – April 25, 1961) was an American stage and film actor and director. Often taken for granted as a director today, the stalwart Melford's name by the 1920s was, like Cecil B. DeMil ...

. ''The Viking'' was the first film to record sound and dialogue on location with the use of

magnetic wire recording Wire recording or magnetic wire recording was the first magnetic recording technology, an analog type of audio storage in which a magnetic recording is made on a thin steel wire. The first crude magnetic recorder was invented in 1898 by Valdem ...

.McIntosh, Andrew
"The Viking (White Thunder)."
''Canadian Film Encyclopedia''. Retrieved: March 29, 2012. It is best known for the explosion aboard the ship SS ''Viking'' (an actual sealing ship) during filming, in which many members of the crew, including producer

Varick Frissell Lewis Varick Frissell (1903 – March 15, 1931) was an American documentary filmmaker. His last film, '' The Viking'', set in Newfoundland, involved the largest loss of life of the film production crew in film history. This film was also "t ...

, were killed. It remains the incident with the largest loss of life in film history.

Plot

Set on the coast of Newfoundland, a rivalry develops between Jed Nelson, a seal hunter, and Luke Oarum, a local man considered a

jinx A jinx (also jynx), in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck. The word ''"jynx"'' meaning the bird wryneck and sometimes a charm or spell has been in use in English since the seventeent ...

. Worried that his rival may try to steal his girlfriend Mary Joe, calling him a coward, the seal hunter goads Luke into accompanying him on an Arctic sealing expedition on ''

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

'', commanded by Capt. Barker). They both end up in a hunting party on the ice floes and eventually find themselves stranded. Jed tries to kill Luke, but the snow blinds him and his gunshot misses. Despite the attempt on his life, Luke helps walk the blinded Jed across the ice floes back to Newfoundland after they are unable to return to the ship. On recovering his sight at home, Jed gains new respect for his rival and vows that he will beat senseless any man who derides the character of his new friend.

Cast

As listed in the credits: * Louise Huntington as Mary Joe * Charles Starrett as Luke Oarum * Capt. Robert Abram Bartlett as Capt. Barker * Arthur Vinton as Jed Nelson

Production

American-born producer Varick Frissell's previous

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, ''The Lure of Labrador'' and ''The Swilin' Racket'' (also known as ''The Great Arctic Seal Hunt''), prompted him to make a full-length feature entitled ''Vikings of the Ice Field''.

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

put up $100,000 to finance the production, while insisting that Hollywood personnel be used. Frissell hired director George Melford, who had attended

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and had experience in filming Canadian subjects previously. By 1930, Frissell had completed most of the principal photography on location in

Quidi Vidi Quidi Vidi is a neighbourhood in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador (pronunciations vary, even amongst longtime residents, but "Kiddy Vidi" is the most common). The village is adjacent to Quidi Vidi Lake (where the Royal St. John's Regatta is ...

. For realistic footage, Frissell then took his crew to the

Grand Banks The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

and

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

to film action sequences. The film was privately shown at the

Nickel Theatre The Nickel Theatre was the first movie theatre in Newfoundland. Part of the five-cent picture show craze that brought daily movies to almost every city and town all across North America, the Nickel opened in the Benevolent Irish Society's St. Patr ...

at St. John's on March 5, 1931. After this screening, Frissell decided that his film needed more real scenes from the Labrador ice floes. Within days, Frissell and his crew had joined the SS ''Viking'' for its annual seal hunt. The ship got trapped in ice near the Horse Islands. On March 15, 1931, while trying to film an iceberg, Frissell, Alexander Penrod, 25 crew members and a stowaway were killed in an explosion.Rist 2001, p. 230.Rhodes 2001, p. 95. Some of the survivors made the over-ice trek to the Horse Islands, while others were rescued by vessels dispatched to the area. Despite the fatal accident, the film was completed and released in June 1931. The title was changed from ''White Thunder'' to ''The Viking''. A French-language version ''Ceux du Viking'' was released in 1932.

Reception

Reviews for ''The Viking'' varied, while the story was generally panned. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' review referred to the film's story as "sketchy". The reviewer, however, noted: "'The Viking', like Mr Varick's silent work, 'The Swilin' Racket', has many marvelous scenes of the ice fields and of the adventures of men on a seal hunt off Labrador. It is enhanced by being made with sound effects, but the dialogue, like the story, is merely incidental." The ''Theater Guild Magazine'' found the story "melodramatic" and the screenplay uninteresting in comparison to the cinematography. ''The Film Daily'' gave a negative review, noting the "weakness" of the story. ''White Thunder'', a

National Film Board The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

documentary on Varick Frissell's life, directed by Newfoundlander Victoria King, was released in 2002.Miller, John
"White Thunder on DVD."
''Turner Classic Movies'', 2015. Retrieved: November 6, 2015.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Rhodes, Gary Don. ''White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2001. . * Rist, Peter. ''Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. .

External links

* * * (1932 French-language version) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viking, The 1931 films 1930s adventure drama films 1930s independent films American adventure drama films American independent films American black-and-white films Canadian adventure drama films Canadian independent films 1930s English-language films Films set in Newfoundland and Labrador Films set in the Arctic Films shot in Newfoundland and Labrador American multilingual films Films directed by George Melford Canadian multilingual films 1931 multilingual films 1931 drama films 1930s American films 1930s Canadian films