Ostensibly, Tyler's mission is to prove that the wolves are hunting the caribou herds, thereby decimating the population. There are several chilling scenes in the movie: A plane loses power mid- flight and squeaks through the mountains Tyler plunges through the ice and is trapped underneath, and Tyler is caught in the midst of a caribou herd begin stalked by wolves. However, this type of moviegoing is not everyone's idea of a fun night out. I've always liked the Audubon series, travel films and lectures by outdoorsmen and the like. 'Never Cry Wolf' has lots of similarities to Disney's 'True-Life Adventure' series (one of the producers of this movie photographed many of them). He's trying to prove that a larger mammal can exist on a diet of rodents (Since this is a Disney release, I couldn't help thinking they could have titled the movie, 'Eating Mickey'). Moviegoers who can't stand the sight of mice be forewarned: Tyler's better mouse trap solution is to eat them in a series of really gross scenes. 'I'm supposed to watch his behavior,' Smith says of a wolf, 'but all he does is watch mine.' The actors playing the Indians, by the way, aren't actors at all but Inuit Indians and they are very natural in front of the cameras. The script has several nice turns, even though a lot of the movie is narrated. Dennehy, who recently appeared in 'Gorky Park,' again provides a wonderfully idiosyncratic characterization. Smith, who is best-remembered as Terry in 'American Graffiti,' acquits himself well as the bespectacled biologist who is too naive to be afraid of his assignment in the northern tundra. The movie is based on the best-selling book by Farley Mowat. 'Never Cry Wolf' was directed by Carroll Ballard, who filmed the beautiful and moving, 'The Black Stallion.' Ballard certainly has a sense for filming animals and the outdoors and his latest film is imbued with long, inspiring shots of snow-peaked vistas and amazing closeups of wolves and caribou.

Never cry wolf