Emperor of the North Pole
Tags: depressing, murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, sadist

Plot synopsis:
Shack (Ernest Borgnine) is a merciless, inhumane, and sadistic bully of a conductor on an Oregon railroad during the Great Depression. He takes it upon himself to ensure that no one would ever ride his freight train for free, and that anyone who has would no longer live. Shack has an arsenal of makeshift weapons: a hammer, a steel rod, and a chain. During the opening credits, he hits a hobo who is riding between two cars on the head, causing the "bo" to fall on the tracks and be cut in two by the train's wheels.
A hobo who is a hero to his peers, A-No.-1 (Lee Marvin), manages to hop the train with the younger, less-experienced Cigaret (Keith Carradine) close behind. To create a distraction, A-No.-1 sets fire to the car in which he and Cigaret are riding. At the next stop, A-No.-1 evades the rail yard workers and escapes to the hobo jungle, but Cigaret is caught. Cigaret brags to the workers (Vic Tayback and others) that he was the one who rode Shack's train and that the other tramp burned to death. Most of the workers believe him and they dispatch another "bo" to spread the word that Cigaret is the one who finally beat Shack. When this tramp arrives in the hobo jungle, A-No.-1 is there and he is furious to learn that the young braggart Cigaret is taking credit for his deed. A-No.-1 determines to ride Shack's train all the way to Portland to prove that only he is capable of such a bold act. He has another hobo scratch his intention on the yard water tower. When word of this posting arrives in the train shed, Shack is in the process of strangling Cigaret for daring to claim he has ridden Shack's train. Forgotten in the excitement among the yard workers over whether A-No.-1 will succeed, Cigaret slips out unnoticed. The other hobos agree that the first who can successfully ride Shack's train will have earned the title "Emperor of the North Pole." Railroad workers place bets whether A-No.-1 can do it, spreading the news up and down the line by telephone and telegraph, Shack being widely known and disliked.
The next morning is foggy. One of the hobos picks the lock on a switch so that Shack's train, Number 19, will be sent off on a branch line, making it easier for A-No.-1 to board. A-No.-1 unhitches the engine and tender from the freight cars to distract Shack further. Shack yells at A-No.-1 in his hiding place in the woods that this prank might cost ten lives when the fast mail train comes through in just a few minutes. A-No.-1 dismisses this as merely "a ghost story." Hogger (the engineer) and Coaly (the stoker) desperately get the train going again and they barely succeed in getting it off onto a siding, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic collision with the mail train.
A-No.-1 hides inside a pipe on a flatcar and as the morning advances and the fog burns off, he discovers that Cigaret is hiding in another pipe. Shack stops the train on a high trestle so that he and his dimwitted brakeman Cracker (Charles Tyner) can search for hobos more easily. Realizing that he will soon be discovered, Cigaret climbs down the trestle only to discover that A-No.-1 is already relaxing and smoking a cigar in a junk pile at the bottom of a ravine. They reboard the train beyond the trestle but A-No.-1 loses his grip (Shack has sabotaged some of the hand- and footholds) and falls off, while Shack strikes Cigaret on the head with a large hammer, causing him to fall off also.
The two men go back to the junk pile and haul several buckets back up the slope where they smear the rails with grease. A passenger train is slowed down by this sufficiently that A-No.-1 and Cigaret are able to jump onto the roof of one of the cars from an overhead sluice. The two jump off at the Salem yard and steal a turkey. A policeman (Simon Oakland) chases them to a hobo jungle, but is surrounded and forced to humiliate himself by barking like a dog. A-No.-1, by now deeply annoyed by Cigaret's empty boasts, tells the younger man that if he will only listen and allow himself to learn, he has what it takes to become a true hobo, possibly even Emperor of the North Pole. They then get involved in an immersion baptism service as a means of stealing a change of clothes.
Back in the Salem yard, A-No.-1 has once again scratched on the water tower his intent to ride Train 19 all the way to Portland. Shack tells Hogger to take the train out of the yard at regular speed, thereby allowing the two hobos to board easily; Shack clearly wants to settle the matter once and for all. A-No.-1 and Cigaret climb aboard the undercarriage of one of the freight cars, where Shack once again uses a bouncing steel pin on a rope to injure them. In pain, A-No.-1 uses his foot to throw a lever that releases the pressure in the brake lines, causing the train to stop quickly. Coaly is thrown against the firebox, severely burning his back. Cracker is flung down from his perch in the caboose, breaking his neck and dying in the process. Cigaret finds A-No.-1 nursing his injuries near a pond and berates him for lacking the strength and courage to go the distance. The younger man insists that he himself is going to become one of the all-time great hobos.
After this tirade, Cigaret reboards the train, but immediately retreats in fear from the hammer-wielding and very angry Shack. Just as Shack is about to deliver a fatal blow, A-No.-1 appears and begins battling Shack. A desperate struggle involving heavy chains, planks of wood and an axe ensues (Cigaret watches from a safe distance). A-No.-1 ultimately has the bloodied Shack at his mercy, but instead of killing him, throws him off the train. In defiance, Shack yells that A-No.-1 has not seen the last of him. The older man then tosses Cigaret off for bragging about how "they" defeated Shack, telling the kid he could have become a good bum but he's got no class. "You had the juice, kid, but not the heart," he yells as the train heads into the distance.

Review: This film is one of the unsung gems of the seventies, part adventure film, part social drama, part road movie.Set during the depression when riding the rails was a way of life for desperate men (and women), the film follows three characters - Lee Marvin, as Number One, a legend among the grizzled hobos congregating along the rail lines; Ernest Borgnine as Shack, the sadistic conductor perfectly willing to do whatever necessary to keep free loaders off his trains; and a young Keith Carradine as Two-Bit, a novice full of bluster and false bravado out to make a name for himself.
Ultimately a wager is made, and Marvin will put his life on the line to best Borgnine and show he is the Emperor of the North.At times it's a very brutal film - the final confrontation between Marvin & Borgnine is one of the toughest, nastiest fights ever photographed - but it is splendidly made and endlessly fascinating..
Director Robert Aldrich having completed the acclaimed and commercially successful "The Dirty Dozen" just 6 years earlier had the resources, the artistic courage, and the benefit of working with two veteran Dirty Dozen actors (Lee Marvin & Ernest Borgnine)who just lock-on to their respective characters with perfection.
Emperor of the North Pole is great movie and an absolute must see if you are a fan of vintage railroading, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Aldrich, or Keith Carradine.
Only instead of the wild blue yonder, or landing on the heaving deck of an aircraft carrier, or NASCAR racing, the thing to be conquered here is Ernest Borgnine, the sadistic conductor who chuckles as he throws hobos off his train, sometimes to their deaths, kind of redoing his Fatso Judson number, so evil that if he did not exist it would be necessary to prevent him.It's a classical subculture in that it has all the features of a closed world with its own values.
In other movies exploring such subcultures they may have names like "Fast Eddy," "Minnesota Fats," "Maverick," "Dragstrip," "Charlie the Gent." Here they have names like "A Number 1" (Lee Marvin), "Cigaret" (Keith Carradine), and "Shack" (Borgnine).
This film really gets the feel of a depression-era USA, and the conflict between Marvin and Borgnine is visceral and cunning, and the scene with the near-miss of the oncoming train has great tension.
Directed by Robert Aldrich, and bearing his unmistakable anarchist's stamp, it tells the story of two hoboes, one, A-1, played by Lee Marvin, a seasoned, lone wolf, and the other, Cigaret (Keith Carradine), a young boaster who tags along for the rides, and forever tries to convince his friend and mentor that he is in the same league with him in the art of hobodom, and maybe even better.
The story revolves around the attempt of both men to ride the Number 19, a train lorded over by vicious railroadman Shack (Ernest Borgnine), who is known for despising hoboes, and for attacking them with hammer and chains!
Most importantly, the central conflict between Borgnine's Shack and Marvin's A Number One, and the methods both use to overcome their enemy are very closely based on the Jack London story, in which a group of hobo's set out to ride the train on which a particularly brutal shack, or railway guard works..
It was just AWESOME, I was so thrilled, that from that day I took all efforts needed to see as many from Aldrich's movies (and lee Marvin's, of course) as possible.MARVIN and BORGNINE play the roles of their lives and are possible the best imaginable actors for these roles (although at the time the movie was made, you had a lot of great tough guys to choose from, while today you'd have real troubles finding any actors, who could believable play these roles - they're all weepies now), the script is tough and intelligent and although the movie runs for nearly 2 hours, it's never boring.
Those people, commonly called "hobos", are truly hated by Shack (Ernest Borgnine), a sadistical railway conductor who announces he will kill any tramp who attempts to cop his train and swore that no hobo will ride his locomotive for free .
Well, no-one but the legendary Number One (Lee Marvin) and a young hobo named Cigaret (Keith Carradine's character Cigaret is named after the moniker that Jack London adopted on the road) are ready to put their lives at wager to become national legends , as the first persons who survived the trip on Shack's known train .Tough hobo Lee Marvin & sadistic conductor Ernest Borgnine meet in the fight of the century , both of whom give excellent performances .
It was Robert Aldrich's intention that the characters played by Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin and Keith Carradine represented the Establishment, the Anti-Establishment and the Youth of Today respectively .
In this society Lee Marvin is A-No.1, he's earned that by challenging all the train bosses for his right to thumb a ride on any train going anywhere in the 48 states.Years ago I remember reading a biography of Jack Dempsey who in his youth was a hobo like Marvin, probably one about Keith Carradine's age who rode the rails as you see Carradine and Marvin do.
Is Marvin up to the challenge however both from Borgnine and from young Carradine who thinks he's tough enough to live in the hobo camps and ride the rails as well?For that you have to watch Emperor Of The North Pole.
But in the midst is hobo supreme, A No. 1, a man who is never afraid to take up a challenge, so along with Cigaret, a young wannabe legend, he sets about destroying Shack's reputation whilst furthering his own.Make no bones about it, Emperor Of The North Pole is unashamedly macho, director Robert Aldrich filling his picture with machismo beefcakes and molding a story of brawn versus brawn aboard the unlikely setting of a steam train journey.
Ernest Borgnine is the meanest sonofabitch on the railroad and Lee Marvin is the hobo who gives him a hard time riding the rails.
Robert Aldrich's "Emperor of the North" is one of his male-orientated pictures, displaying a good deal of his signature brutality and while it's a minor work in the Aldrich canon it has much to recommend it; here it's the duel to the death between Marvin and Borgnine who makes for a truly nasty villain and is just one of the reasons why this is such a ridiculously entertaining picture.
Great Oregon locations and Acting especially by Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine and a very young Keith Carradine..
The story follows two hobos, A-No 1 (Marvin) and a rookie (Carradine) who are trying to ride a mean conductor's (Borginine) train to Portland.
In this tale we have an aging Hobo called A-Number 1(Lee Marvin) who has challenged the most sadistic, murderous and brutal conductor (Ernest Borgnine) called Shack to a dangerous wager.
"A Number One", (Lee Marvin) is the grizzled hobo legend, a veteran of the rails, decides to challenge the status quo of the local rail line that "Shack", (Ernest Borgine), as conductor runs as a 'Bo free train.
This in itself would make for a interesting and picturesque little film but writer Christopher Knox and Director Robert Aldrich, include a few more interesting and unique characters such as Keith Carradine's, young dumb punk character, Cigaret and plot twists that create a genuine feel of a world going mad, which as the depression was going on - it was; you have a film that goes from good to outstanding.
A good story line, with characters familiar from our lives (the crazed, sadistic "Shack", the gruff but worldly, once impatient but finally weathered to a worn wisdom "A#1", and the know-it-all, heading for a fall "Cigaret".)  I could blab on and on, but suffice it to say that one must see this movie, if for no other reason, to see one of the great movies of life on the trains, and in the Northwest..
I like him in this film.The railroad set was as good a look at old time depression era railroading as you will ever see.
Bushy-browed Ernest Borgnine stars as a Depression-era railroad conductor who'll be damned if he'll allow hoboes to ride his train.
They take what could have been a formulaic action movie and put heart and soul into it.Ernest Borgnine does a lot of scowling and growling in his role as the menacing train conductor, but it really works set against the brutality of the Great Depression.
And Keith Carradine does a good but not spectacular job as the brash newcomer who wants to displace Marvin as the "Emperor of the North Pole" who is the king of the hobos scattered up and down the Northwest road.I expect that the movie will get some new traction as it finally emerges on DVD, and as the current economic times get us thinking about the Great Depression again.
It is tough violent film set in the depression era Pacific Northwest railroads and concerns hobos hitching a free ride on the trains and the railway guards fighting them off.One rail guard is Shack (Ernest Borgnine) he is a mean one and will kill any hobo who rides on his train and he enjoys it.
Lee Marvin is the hobo who is determined to ride Shack's train and this leads to a clash of these two alpha males and two Oscar winning actors.Along for the ride is Keith Carradine as the young hobo who also gets involved in a tussle with Marvin and Borgnine.
Were they supposed to be uneasy allies or enemies as in the key final fight he is just a spectator.The film is filled with the depression period atmosphere and it is a muscular film, interesting and novel but I expected something with more substance from Aldrich such as a more shaded villain from Borgnine, his Shack is so disliked that other rail workers were hoping Marvin would successfully ride his train..
This is a gritty, daunting film about hobos riding trains during the Great Depression.
Fans of "Emperor Of The North" may disagree on whether this film is superficial or deep, and they may enjoy it for different reasons.Fans who like this movie on a "superficial" level will certainly enjoy the sometimes slapstick comedy, and the gags that are perpetrated by the hobos in their quest to ride the railroad trains for free.
It is certainly legitimate to see the movie as primarily an elaborate, albeit thoroughly enjoyable, bar room joke.Fans who like this movie on a "deeper" level will see the battle between Shack (Ernest Borgnine) and A No. 1 (Lee Marvin) as a classic struggle between the "haves" and the "have nots," the "cops" and the "robbers," the "establishment" and the "rebels," or as the ultimate battle for Alpha Male supremacy.However you view this movie, it is a worthwhile look at life during the Great Depression, and how it plays out for a large portion of the population who became homeless through little or no fault of their own..
Interesting, quasi-political film of depression era hobo (Lee Marvin) - famous within hobo circles for being able to ride any train - trying to ride one guarded by meanest guy in the world (Ernest Borgnine).
Set in the time of the Great Depression and hidden under a misguiding title, Emperor of the North deals with train-riding hobos and their battle against the Railroad Man. Lee Marvin is A#1, cunning train-riding hobo extraordinaire.
Emperor of the North, a vivid Depression-era drama, opens with a friendly, down-home song that doesn't prepare the audience for what follows: The brutal killing of a train-hopping bum at the hands of a cruel conductor named Shack (Ernest Borgnine, Marty, The Poseidon Adventure).
A hobo called A-No. 1 (Lee Marvin, Cat Ballou, The Big Heat) rises to the challenge of catching a ride on Shack's train--but his heels are dogged by a tenderfoot (Keith Carradine, Deadwood, Nashville), whose inexperience may get them both killed.
Marvin is a legendary hobo riding the rails, while Borgnine is a railroad "bull" obsessed with keeping his train clear of freeloaders like Marvin.
By concentrating purely on a train and life on the railroad through eyes of a few juicy characters the film under Aldrich's direction becomes also one of the best action movies of the 1970's.Lee Marvin and Keith Carradine make an interesting pair as two railway bums who are always confronting each other, yet end up helping and even saving each other's life.
If you are a fan of Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, director Robert Altman; or of just plain old fun to watch movies, then go no further!
It is brutal, the climax not just of this movie, but of Robert Aldrich's career of showing tough guys persevere.Keith Carradine provides some comic relief and youthful sex appeal as "Cigaret," an upstart daring to ride the freight-train that no hobo has ever before lived to tell about hopping.
Lee Marvin plays the principle character A No 1, who would end Shack 'Ernest Borgnine' ideals by chancing a ride on the Old Number 19.The whole movie is a battle between the principle and secondary characters to reach Portland Oregon, including a part where the freight train Lee Marvin is riding upon nearly collides with a fast mail train.Along the way Keith Carradine attempts to take the title of Emperor of the North pole from Lee Marvin after he is incapacitated using sly means, stating that A No1 should get up and fight when he is quite clearly injured, the graphic life experience of A No1 makes this attempt rather difficult at times.There are many funny scenes such as the Cop and the Turkey at a tramps camp.
In "Emperor of the North", Lee Marvin's character A No. 1 is clearly meant to be the protagonist; Ernest Borgnine's Shack is portrayed as the antagonist.
Lee Marvin who is known as a great actor (my standards is that he is an okay actor) does a role that makes you forget him as the actor, but he portrays A No-1, AKA The Emperor of the North Pole, as the greatest bum (which Marvin quotes himself as being a bum) that has ever ridin the rails.Ernest Borgnine who is considered a class B actor even though a lot of movies that he either second rolled in were Hollywood winners takes his role as a psychotic conductor that will kill any lowlife hobo scum that will try to ride his train.Keith Carradine, second in line out of the three Carradine Brothers, Plays the kid, smart mouth prick that thinks that he knows everything and pushes Marvin's buttons to the limits more than once during the film.
Always trying to out do Marvin just to prove that he can do it as well if not better that him.But if you love trains, or are interested in how the life's of Hobo's and Railroad workers in the 1930's were like watch this film.
Set on the rails in the northwest during the great depression Emperor of the North is on the surface a tale of hobos and trains.
Rounding out the cast is Carradine as Cigaret a young up start hobo trying to make a name for himself on the rails.We get a glimpse of what Makes Shack tick in one of the opening scenes of the film after her brains a hobo with a hammer when he catches him riding for free on his train.
A No.1 becomes a folk hero to other hobos, earning himself the title 'Emperor Of The North Pole', setting the scene for an epic confrontation between the tramp and the railroad man...As was the case with 'Dirty Dozen', the cast is mostly all male ( there are a couple of amusing moments which feature women - Cigaret spies a lady shaving her armpits, and a baptist pushes a woman into a river to cleanse her of sin and when she emerges her white gown has become transparent and her breasts can be seen ), and Marvin dominates the film.
This adventure drama takes place in the Pacific Northwest during the depths of the Great Depression when hobo-ism was prolific due to joblessness.Ernest Borgnine is Shack, a legendary sadistic railroad agent of the Oregon Pacific Train #19, determined that no "bo" is ever going to ride one of his trains.
He challenges the thuggish railroad policeman, Shack (Borgnine), there's a supremely brutal fight on a rolling flatcar, the best 'bo wins, he finally rides Shack's "No. 19" to Portland, and, you guessed it, A No. 1 is the king of the road.Sounds like a few of the "B" movies you've seen over the years?All routinely imaginable stuff, but Marvin's imperial performance stirs the imagination.Watch it again.
If your curious the other is Von Ryan's Express.(Only a mild spoiler) Emperor of the North is an odd film and I'm probably the only one of my friends who likes it because I'm the only one who has heard of it.Set during the Great Depression, Emperor of the North is about a hobo named A No. 1 (Lee Marvin) along with a loudmouth younger man named Cigaret (Keith Carradine) try to ride a freight train run by the most vicious conductor who will flat out kill you, the Shack (Ernest Borgnine).I watched this movie with the DVD commentary once, I don't completely agree with the guy but he made some interesting points.
On a more negative note, the combination of sadism and symbolism proves an uneasy mix, creating a film that sometimes seems a little too off-kilter for its own good.In 1930s Oregon, a ruthless train conductor called Shack (Ernest Borgnine) prides himself on catching hobos that try to ride for free aboard his train.
Two hobos  the enigmatic A-No.1 (Lee Marvin), and the young, dim-witted Cigaret (Keith Carradine)  board Shack's train and hitch a ride to a nearby town.