The Spoilers

Summary

A frost-bitten canvas of 1914 vintage, The Spoilers unspools like a Klondike fever dream: prospectors gouge the permafrost for yellow ore while civic virtue itself is excavated, sifted, and pocketed by crooked magistrates. Roy Glennister, the taciturn claim-holder with a heart as raw as riverbed gravel, returns to Nome to find his gold, his girl, and his honor already mortgaged to Alexander McNamara, a federal commissioner whose smile glints colder than a Deringer in moonlight. Enter Cherry Malotte, saloon queen draped in scarlet, dealing cards and desire with the same unblinking poise; her eyes bet more than her lips ever confess. Courtroom perjury, stampedes, and a climactic slug-fest that splinters balcony railings—all combust beneath a midnight sun that refuses to set on greed. When the dust finally drifts like powdered snow over the torn claims, only the quick, the ruthless, and the lucky stagger out of frame, clutching nuggets or nightmares in equal measure.

Synopsis

The first of many filmed adaptations of Rex Beach's adventure novel of the Alaskan gold-rush.