Alaska Highway (1943) [Drama]

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The film begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Alaska at the time was weakly defended. Canada had already built the northwest staging route; a series of airfields spread across northwestern Canada. The decision is made to build a highway to Alaska. The workers are divided into three starting camps, Fort Nelson BC., Skagway Alaska, and Valdez Alaska. The workers from Fort Nelson BC begin building a highway north. The workers in Skagway are transported by the White Pass and Yukon Route railway to Whitehorse. From Whitehorse they begin building a road north and south.

The workers in Valdez Alaska move to a point inland and begin building a road towards Fairbanks and Whitehorse. The movie goes on to show some amazing footage of bulldozers building the highway. The black troops arrive and all work hard building the highway. The highway is opened to traffic. The truck drivers find that the road is better to drive than expected. However, some of the highway is not correctly built and becomes impassable in rain. Flooded rivers wash away some bridges and they have to be rebuilt. Some of the highway is not properly drained and ice builds up on the road. Trucks sink into the mud and are frozen into the mud. Some grades are too steep and accidents happen. Civilian contractors are hired to improve the highway. New bridges are built and telephone lines are added to the route.

Skagway is given a new life by all the troops stationed there. The port is expanded. The White Pass and Yukon Route railway is leased by the army. Supplies flow from Skagway to Whitehorse. One train engineer is given the soldiers medal for risking his life to save his train. The decision is made to build a highway from Hanes Alaska to connect to the Alaska highway. The Indians living in remote Alaska are now connected with the rest of the world by the highways. The airports are upgraded, planes and supplies flow to Russia. The peace river bridge is dedicated. Politicians and army brass from the US and Canada make speeches.

The highway contractors finish their rebuilding of the highway. This allows supplies to flow into Alaska. The film ends with scenes of massive convoys of trucks headed north into Alaska. “Now we can press home the attack. This is the road through the brooding wilderness. This is the wedge that has pried open the last great frontier of America. The key which has unlocked the treasure chest of Alaska and the Canadian northwest.”

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Directed by Frank McDonald, produced by William H. Pine and William C. Thomas, written by Lewis R. Foster and Maxwell Shane , starring Richard Arlen as Woody Ormsby, Jean Parker as Ann Coswell, Ralph Sanford as Frosty Gimble, William Henry as Steve Ormsby, Joe Sawyer as Roughhouse, Eddie Quillan as Pompadour “Shorty” Jones, Jack Wegman as Sergeant Swithers, Harry Shannon as John “Pop” Ormsby, Edward Earle as Blair Caswell and Keith Richards as Hank Lincoln.

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Source: “Alaska Highway (film)” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 1 October 2013. Web. 20 October 2013.

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37 Replies to “Alaska Highway (1943) [Drama]”

  1. Took a foolish half the movie to get construction, sans 11,000 primarily Black men, November weather and any professionalism. Appeared a handful of stooges immersed in themselves built the highway on their own. Wish a n honest, serious attempt had been made. At least some documentaries of this 8-month+ monumental event treat the subject with respect.

  3. This film was total bullshit because the actual ALCAN work crew was primarily comprised of African Americans.

  9. Love the army logging operation at 39 minutes…those trees will fall like confetti!…real 1943 global warming types…not…osha would love the tree falling on the bulldozer operator…"accidents happen sir".

  10. Thanks very much for all of your work to post
    all of these great movie memories. Kudos for the terrific narrative that you include for each move. It’s all so professional in its presentation. You have built the best classic movies sight. And the price is great too!

  11. "The producers are especially grateful to the Province of Alberta, Canada, for authentic scenes filmed on the AlCan Highway." The trouble is, the AlCan isn't in Alberta- It begins at Dawson Creek, BC. Silly Americans, lol!

  14. A monumental effort by black and white and american indians and italians etc.etc.It was a great effort by all the men who froze their asses off building this damn road when our country needed it most ,these patriotic men came to the call and I for one honour them for what they did.

  19. my Dad was in the Army Engineer Corps and was in on building the Alaskan Hwy. and when his term was up started a cab company in Juno until the bombing of PEARL Harbor then he took a boat down to Portland and joined the US Navy and was on a submarine during ww2 .

  24. One night I picked up a girl in Whitehorse , drove her @ 300 miles south , when she said , stop mister stop , so I stopped my truck and she jumped out , turned back and said thanks mister , thanks alot . I hope she made it where ever she was going , that was almost 40 years ago .. My wife and I have made several trips back , now the roads are very nice and smooth , easy driving …

  26. I met an oldster here in Everett Washington that had been a road engineer on the Alaska Highway. Rough living…the men were very well paid due to the crazy weather conditions. And Alaska wasn't even a state then.

  27. It has been most interesting to drive those highways over the last few years. Of note, native people told the engineers they could not build roads like they did Outside. You can't remove top soil and compact a road bed. Melting of permafrost caused the bogs. Gather soil from the sides and build on top of the permafrost. Engineers finally got the message and built roads to hold up. In Skagway is a graveyard of locomotives. One has to wonder if any of the rusting hulks took part in that operation.

  28. Very cool! I love to see classic footage of the area where I live. My family has been in the Fort St John area since before the highway was built.

  29. Where my ears deceiving me or were they singing, "I'm a ramblin' wreck from Ga Tech and a hella of an engineer"?  Good movie!  Thanks.

  32. He's playing a young, twenty-something guy still playing games – while in fact he's 44 years old (and looks it).  Another poor problem of Hollywood.  But WWII has called the best and brightest actors to "A" movies and into war.  As you can tell, I don't care for Richard Arlen.  He has little in the way of "Good Looks" and he divorced his own True name for a stage name – which is cowardly. 

  33. I have never understood how Hollywood seems to ALWAYS stick super-younger girls against an aging older guy as if the audience doesn't see it or know the simple truth.  In the movie – Richard Arlen is saying he's only 10 years older than Jean Parker – when he's actually 16 years old.  This happens constantly.  Richard Arlen was born "Sylvanus Richard Van Matimore" in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He was an RAF pilot in WWI – but never saw combat.  Her family was a history of tough, pure American folks.

  37. An uncle, my late beloved father's favorite, died bombing Nazis in Sicily from Tunisia about the time this film was released. I don't know if my uncle, whom I never met, ever saw it; the North African American Air Core was good about showing films about the home front efforts; I hope he did see this film. Twenty-five missions were required of airmen; my uncle died on his voluntary forty-second, a kid from small-town Oklahoma. What amazing humans made up this generation, defending civilization.

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