Louise Huntington

Originally called White Thunder, American producer Varick Frissell's 1931 film was inspired by his love for the Canadian Arctic Circle. Set in a beautifully black-and-white filmed Newfoundland, it is the story of a rivalry between two seal hunters that plays out on the ice floes during a hunt. Unsatisfied with the first cut, Frissell arranged for the crew to accompany an actual Newfoundland seal hunt on The SS Viking, on which an explosion of dynamite (carried regularly at the time on Arctic ships to combat ice jams) killed many members of the crew, including Frissell. The film was renamed in honor of the dead.

In 1877, thieves Ace Beaudry, Bronco Dawson and Bull Stanley head West together after having each been betrayed by a woman. They come across a wagon train bound for the town of Custer, where hundreds of people are gathering for a land rush in the Dakotas, which President Ulysses S. Grant has opened to settlers thanks to a treaty with the Sioux Indians. After the three rogues ride off, they spy a lone wagon with a tempting string of thoroughbreds. Before they can steal the horses, however, the wagon is attacked by a gang led by Layne Hunter, a shifty saloon owner from Custer. The trio chase off the gang, and as they are about to abscond with the horses, they find pretty Lee Carleton, whose father was killed in the attack.

This George O'Brien western is based on a novel by Max Brand, previously filmed as the 1920 Tom Mix vehicle The Untamed. Cast as devil-may-car Whistlin' Dan Barry, our hero rides into a passel of trouble in a wide-open town. Warned to leave the premises or else, Whistlin' Dan refuses to do so, sticking around long enough to whomp villain Jim Silent (Mitchell Lewis) and romance heroine Kate Cumberland (Louise Huntington).