Based loosely on the writings of Jack London and Leon Ray Livingston, Robert Aldrich’s Emperor of the North Pole (1973) tells the story of two hobos in the American Northwest during the depression — A Number One (Lee Marvin) and Cigaret (Keith Carradine). The two have a very uneasy relationship with one another and a completely antagonistic relationship with Shack (Ernest Borgnine), a railwayman who doesn’t want any freeloaders on his train.