Spawn of the North (1938)

The visual wizardry in this period action picture about Alaskan fishermen won a special honorary Oscar in the years before special effects got its own category.  Jim Kimmerlee, a salmon fisherman in Alaska who has become at odds with a childhood friend, Tyler Dawson. While Jim attempts to make an honest living, Tyler, whose frustrated dreams of buying his own schooner don’t look to be realized anytime soon, has signed on with a Russian crew that steals the catch from others’ nets. While the rivalry between the two one-time pals heats up, Jim begins romancing Dian Turlan, the daughter of a local newspaperman and renowned tippler, Windy Turlon.

George Raft, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, John Barrymore

1938, B&W, 110 minutes