White Fang is an
adventure saga based on the autobiographical classic by Jack
London. Set in the Yukon Territory at the height of the gold
rush it tells simultaneously the story of White Fang, an
orphan wolf cub and Jack, a city-bred young man who leaves San
Francisco to stake his deceased father's claim in the frozen
Territory.
Jack convinces Alex,
a burly friend of his father's, and another man, Skunker, to
take him to the remote claim and they set out by foot and sled
team on their treacherous journey. Enroute they are attacked
by wolves and Skunker is killed, as is a female wolf who
leaves an orphaned cub to fend for himself. The young wolf,
who is half dog, begins his own adventure in survival. He is
adopted as a work dog by Indians who name him White Fang. When
White Fang defends himself and exhibits skills as a fighter,
professional dog fighters swindle White Fang away from his
owner and force him to fight. These brutish men make a bundle
with White Fang billed as "The Fighting Wolf" until
he is matched with a Pit-bull, and is severely injured. Jack
rescues White Fang and nurses him back to health and an
inseparable bond is formed between the two. When Jack
eventually strikes gold he must decide whether to stay in the
Yukon or to return to civilization without White Fang.
This is as much
White Fang's story as Jack's, and a major part of the film is
devoted to animal action. White Fang is portrayed by Jed, a
hybrid, who is part wolf and part dog. Both purebred and
hybrid wolves are used throughout the film.
In an opening
sequence hungry wolves are chasing down their next meal, a
rabbit. The chase was filmed separately and the wolves and
rabbit were never together. When the wolves bared their teeth
they were responding to their trainer's command,
"Teeth". When they make their strike it's not
actually seen and the wolves are shown eating a combination of
dog food and chicken. Trained purebred wolves were used in
this sequence.
When White Fang's
mother goes fishing to feed her cub, a rubber fish is pulled
out of the river. The half fish that she brings back to her
cub was a fake with dog food on top. Later when a wolf takes a
fish in his mouth from the lake, it is a rubber fish that the
wolf had been taught to catch.
Part of the cargo
accompanying Jack and Alex on the dog sled is a coffin
containing a corpse clutching a white dog. Both were fake.
In the wolf attack
scene, when White Fang's mother is shot, the wolf had been
taught to fall, limp and crawl as if she were injured. To
simulate two wolves attacking Alex, the trainer wore Alex's
jacket and the wolves grabbed and pulled at a strap attached
to the jacket, which they had been trained to do. They were
rewarded with food for their efforts.
After his mother's
death, White Fang tries to join with other wolves, but in his
pursuit slides down a snowy hill and falls through a hole in a
cave. Rather than actually sliding down a hill, the wolf was
taught to slide on a plastic runner. As he fell into the hole
he was actually dropped into his trainer's hands. When he fell
onto the cave floor he fell only one foot onto soft fake snow.
Camera angles made it appear that he fell further. The hungry
cub tries fishing and catching mice. Real fish swimming in
shallow water were never touched by the cub and were not
harmed. While real mice were used, when White Fang chased
mice, they were fakes being pulled on strings. When a hungry
White Fang is attracted to a dead rabbit in a trap, it is a
fake rabbit. When White Fang is snared by this trap and is
hanging upside down, you just see his head and forefeet
because he is being held up by his trainer. This sequence was
shot in cuts so that the wolf could be filmed just a few
seconds at a time. When a trapper cuts him down and holds him
by his neck, his rear is being held and supported off-camera.
White Fang's yelps while on a sled were dubbed in later.
In one of White
Fangs first encounters with Jack, he saves Jack from a bear
attack. With a bear in pursuit, Jack seeks cover in a wood
pile. White Fang confronts the bear, distracts him, and chases
him off. This was shot primarily in cuts with the trainer a
photo double for Jack and the bear was merely playing with his
trainer. Although the wolf and bear are accustomed to each
other, when they were briefly filmed together, there were
wires (unseen by the camera) separating them.
All the fight scenes
were filmed with the animals playing not fighting. Many hours
of filming the animals at play were edited down to a few
minutes. Anything that looked like a real fight was edited in
and sounds were dubbed in later. The animals had their own
make-up trailer where "blood" and "scars"
were applied. For White Fang's last fight he wore a fur collar
and it is the collar that the Pit-bull had between his teeth,
not White Fang's neck. When the Pit-bull is pried off with a
crow-bar, the crow-bar is made of rubber and the actor is
feigning the effort. White Fang is near death so Jed was
taught to lie still. To this day the wolf, Jed, and the St.
Bernard are good friends and play together each morning on the
trainer's compound.
As the brutish men
try to turn White Fang into a viscous fighter, they taunt him
with sticks and White Fang eventually grabs the stick and it
splinters in two. A soft balsa wood stick was used and White
Fang was actually growling and lunging in response to his
special bone which his trainer was holding off-camera. This
was the same technique used throughout the film whenever
growling and lunging was required.
After Jack rescues
White Fang, White Fang still distrusts men and bites Jack. A
fake hand was used for this. When White Fang jumps through a
closed cabin window to be with Jack, he is jumping through
harmless candy glass. When the villains attacked and set fire
to the cabin, it was a controlled fire and was never really
near the wolf. The rocks that the villains threw were made of
rubber.
At the request of
Disney, our representative, Edward L. Lish, went to Alaska to
inspect the extensive housing compound being constructed for
the animals. He was on location in Alaska for 4 1/2 months and
taped 22 hours of animal action in the making of the film. The
production company went to great effort and expense to insure
the safety of the animals. The trainer, Clint Rowe, achieved
extraordinary performances from his animals through his care
and concern for the total well-being of each animal. Their
mutual trust and affection was obvious to all during
production.