Andre Sennwald of The New York Times found the film entertaining.[3] Time felt it was "painfully uninspired".[4] Scholastic, a magazine for youth recommended the film for its "authentic background and characters of the days of gold-discovery".[5] Newsweek complained that the plot from the original book was thrown away.[6] Canadian Magazine assured Canadians that the film had "nothing to do with the cheap, tawdry 'coast' " from the novel.[7] Chicago threatened to ban the film.