EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE

If you can ride Shack's train and live, you'll be EMPEROR OF THE NORTH! It is the Great Depression, and work is scarce. Homeless hobos search out work anywhere they can by hitching rides on trains all around the country. However, not everybody is sympathetic to their plight, especially not Shack (Ernest Borgnine), the sadistic train conductor of the Old Number 19 who has sworn that no hobo will ever ride his train. He's willing to do anything, including commit murder, in order to make it so. This doesn't sit well with a hobo only known as 'A' Number One (Lee Marvin), a grizzled old veteran of the railways who declares that he will be the first to ride Shack's train all the way to the end of the line at Portland, Oregon and live, a feat which would make him even more of a legend among hobos than he already is, and would give him the title of Emperor of the North Pole. He is not much helped, however, by the entrance of Cigaret (Keith Carradine), aka "Two-Bit", into his life. The young hobo is brash and full of bravado, but Number One can tell that he's also naive, inexperienced and covering up his fears about his new life on the road. So he takes the reluctant and none-too-grateful Cigaret under his wing. Part action movie and part social commentary, EMPEROR OF THE NORTH is a nail-biting, suspenseful thriller.