Nomads of the North
1920 film directed by David Hartford and James Oliver Curwood
Nomads of the North is a 1920 American drama film of the North Woods co-directed and co-written by David Hartford and James Oliver Curwood, and featuring Lon Chaney, Betty Blythe, and Lewis Stone. The film was based on Curwood's own 1919 novel of the same name (he also produced the film). The film still exists in complete form and is available on DVD. The film's original poster also still exists.
Plot
In a small rural village, impoverished Nanette Roland refuses to marry the villainous Buck McDougall until she is convinced that her long-absent fiancé, Raoul Challoner, is dead. Buck obtains false evidence of Challoner's death and Nanette sadly consents to be married, mainly for her bankrupt old father's sake. (Raoul had gone away months earlier on a hunting expedition and never returned.)
At Nanette's wedding ceremony, Raoul suddenly appears alive at the church and his presence interrupts the proceedings. Raoul has brought back a pet dog and a tamed bear cub with him from his sojourn, both animals having become very attached to him. Raoul talks Nanette into eloping with him and his two pets, but Buck and his henchmen attack Raoul. In the ensuing battle, Raoul accidentally kills a man in self-defense but he is arrested for murder anyway, since Buck's father runs the whole town. Raoul is handcuffed and locked up in the basement of a log cabin, with a murder charge hanging over him.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Nomads of the North” is 1920 film directed by David Hartford and James Oliver Curwood. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Nomads, North and film, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7048446. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920 and 1919.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nomads of the North” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.