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''Emperor of the North Pole'' is a 1973 American film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Keith Carradine. It was re-released under the shorter title ''Emperor of the North'', and is best known under the latter name. The film is about hobos during the 1930s and is set in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is based, in part, on the books ''The Road'' by Jack London and ''From Coast to Coast with Jack London'' by "A-No.-1" (the pen-name of Leon Ray Livingston), although both books predate the 1930s by a few decades. Carradine's character, Cigaret, uses the moniker that Jack London used on the road, and like London, is portrayed as a young traveling companion to the older A-No.-1 (played by Marvin), but that is where the similarity between Carradine's character and Jack London ends, as Cigaret is portrayed in the film as immature, loud-mouthed, and none too bright. The title is a reference to a joke among hobos during the Great Depression that the world's best hobo was "Emperor of the North Pole", a way of poking fun at their own desperate situation since somebody ruling over the North Pole would reign over a wasteland. ==Plot== Shack is a merciless, inhumane, and sadistic bully of a railroad conductor who takes it upon himself to ensure that no one would ever ride on his train for free, even to go as far as murder in order to do so. Shack has an arsenal of makeshift weapons: a hammer, a steel rod, and a chain. A hobo who is a hero to his peers, A-No.1, manages to hop the train with the younger, less-experienced Cigaret close behind. At the next stop, A-No.1 evades Shack and escapes into the hobo jungle, but Cigaret is caught. Shack threatens to kill Cigaret for riding his train for free, who is bragging that he and he alone did it. Shack is distracted when he learns that A-No.1 has posted a notice on the yard water tower, announcing that he will become the first hobo to ride Shack's train all the way to Portland. 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 far and wide over the telegraph, Shack being widely known and disliked. A-No.1 hops the train and does everything he can to steer clear of Shack, pulling a series of pranks with the help of other hobos, such as running Shack's train into a siding and almost causing it to crash head on into an oncoming mail train. He tries to rid himself of the company of Cigaret, who tags along and makes a general pest of himself. Shack succeeds in ejecting the two, but they board a fast passenger train which overtakes Shack's train and ride it to Salem, Oregon. There, they have several farcical encounters, including one with a policeman who chases the two into the Salem hobo jungle, accusing them of stealing a turkey. They also encounter a Holiness minister holding an outdoor baptism service. The two hobos reboard Shack's train after it arrives in Salem. The story ends with a climactic fight, involving heavy chains, planks of wood and an axe. A-No.1 ultimately has the bloodied Shack at his mercy, but instead of killing him, throws him off the train. He 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Emperor of the North Pole」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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