Jack London (1943)

This is a tedious, episodic biopic on the life of author Jack London, portrayed by Michael O’Shea. I don’t know how faithful it is to his actual life, but there is a forced quality here to make it relevant to the World War II era by framing the entire story around the 1943 launch of the liberty ship named Jack London. The episode involving his time as a foreign correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War even gives him a chance to foretell Japanese attacks in the future. None of this is helped by the poor quality copy on Hoopla, but at least it features a decent role for Louise Beavers as his beneficiary early in the film.

Oscar Nomination: Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture