Verdict:
Ah, the old American movies: interesting stories and good cinematography, but the overacting is unbearable. The origin of this overacting is said to be in the days before cinema, when all these actors were theater actors and had to overact, so that the people in the back of the theater could tell what’s going on. The silent film era didn’t help, as the movies were in black and white and silent, so that you still needed a colourful animated performance to compensate for the technical drawbacks.
Humphrey Bogart is like the poster boy for this type of acting and this movie is where he goes completely balls out and dialed up to 11. The dialogue is appropriately campy, with lines like “Just like I thought!” and “I know what your game is!”, exclaimed with sudden gestures.
The physical acting complements the dialogue. There is a scene where a guy is eating near the fire and he is crouching in the most uncomfortable unnatural position no one would ever eat in, unless of course they were posing for a camera, for a specific shot. The movie is not all like this but a lot of it is.
Walter Huston’s portrayal of a gold prospector earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor, which shows. It is this guy who adds the most gravitas to the film. He also overacts, but his performance is at least funny, sharp and memorable.
If this movie was a comic book, just a set of paintings or drawings, it would have been much more palatable. The composition of the scenes is great. And when the actors occasionally stop overacting, it does become an enjoyable experience, but then it goes right back to being a cartoon. In fact, the movie keeps going from normal to cheesy to normal to crazy, and the normal only makes the crazy stand out even more.
But if you do not mind that the movie has a nervous outburst every now and then, it is still fun.