Klondike (1932) review: Brain surgery in a log cabin

If you have an hour to spare and a soft spot for dusty 1930s Monogram pictures where doctors perform brain surgery in log cabins, yes, Klondike is worth a look. Anyone who loves fast-paced pre-code weirdness will dig it, but if you need actual medical logic, you'll probably hate this within ten minutes. ❄️

The movie starts as a heavy courtroom drama. Dr. Cromwell (played by a very intense Lyle Talbot) tries a new surgery, the guy dies, and suddenly everyone in town hates him.

Instead of doing what normal people do and laying low, he decides to fly a plane to Japan with his buddy. Because why not?

They crash in Alaska almost immediately. The crash itself looks like a toy airplane dropped into a bucket of flour, which is honestly the best special effect in the whole thing.

His friend dies, but Cromwell gets rescued by a trapper. He ends up at a trading post where he meets "Klondike" (Thelma Todd). Why is her name Klondike? The movie never really explains this, she just is.

Thelma Todd is always great, but she feels a bit wasted here just being the worried love interest. She has this great energy that doesn't quite fit the gloomy cabin vibes.

Naturally, the trading post owner's son has the exact same brain disease that Cromwell's dead patient had. Talk about a coincidence. 🙄

So, Cromwell has to do the surgery again. In a wooden cabin. With what looks like household tools and some boiling water.

The surgery scene goes on for a bit too long, and Talbot is sweating so much you think he's the one dying. It reminds me of those over-the-top silent thrillers like The Combat, where every gesture is life or death.

A few things I wrote down while watching:

• George "Gabby" Hayes shows up before he became the famous "Gabby" character, and he's surprisingly normal here.
• The courtroom scene has about three extras who look incredibly bored in the background.
• Jim, the sick son, is the pettiest villain ever. He actually fakes being paralyzed after the successful surgery just to ruin the doctor's life. Who does that?

The whole ending feels incredibly rushed, like they realized they only had five minutes of film left in the camera. Jim's fake-paralysis plot is resolved so fast you might miss it if you blink.

It's not a masterpiece, but it has that cheap, earnest energy of early 30s indie filmmaking. It's much more entertaining than some of the drier dramas of the era, like No Man's Law.

Give it a shot if you want something short, weird, and very dramatic.