Francois and Perrault (1972)

Francois and Perrault are supporting antagonists in the 1972 adaptation of The Call of the Wild. They are a pair of mushers who want to steal Buck and his team from John Thornton.

Francois was portrayed by Per Amvik and Perrault was portrayed by Torbjørn Halvorsen.

Role
When Thornton and Calliope are in the saloon with Black Burton, Dutch Harry pay Francois and Perrault half the money for whiskey. Pete walks out the the saloon to check the dogs and the pair trick him into letting them buy them while Francois knocks him unconscious and lock him in a barn and steal the dogs to go to Skagway. When Thornton walks out of the saloon, Pete gets his attention and warns him that the dogs have been stolen.

The next morning, Thornton and Burton are in a police station with Constatine. Thornton assumes that Burton ordered the duo to steal the dogs, but Burton lies by saying that he fired them for stealing the dogs, causing Thornton to be angry and kick his chair. Constatine warns him that he shouldn't do that, but Thornton ignores him and walks away. He later tells Calliope and Pete that he will go on a journey to Skagway to find his dogs.

During their trip to Skagway, the sled dogs accidentally run over Francois, causing him to fall off the hill to his death. Perrault and the sled dogs finally make it to Skagway, but Perrault has frozen to death.

Trivia

 * Unlike their appearance in the film, in the book, they were portrayed as mailers who worked for the Canadian government and were the first sled masters of Buck and his team.