The Big Trees (1952)
There might be some value in seeing this movie as a sign of another environmental time. There is a fight back and forth over a stand of big, valuable trees, and the owner of them at one point is the U.S. government. But even that will not save them. The movie feels like a Wild West genre film, but set in the big woods of the coast instead of the deserts or Monument Valley. But there are all the simple good folk (in this case, Quakers), the sheriff and buddies, the good guy with issues, and the general mischief of any cowboy town. In general, substitute lumberman for cowboy.
And substitute Felix E. Feist for John Ford as director. Feist made a series of B-movies, sports movies, and other genre flick, and this really is one of them, even though Kirk Douglas, the main actor, was coming off of two major movies elsewhere. It condemns both the movie and the reviewer to admit I had to skip parts of it, it just got so boring. Even Douglas couldn't lift it up. Even fistfights and gunfights and a huge explosion of a timbered railroad bridge couldn't save it. It isn't a terrible movie, but just routine to the point of "don't bother." Naturally it's better than a lot of dreck on television, and that's where you ought to catch it, some night when nothing better looms, by accident. It might actually be fun if it catches you by surprise.
Two things I noticed that were great. One, there is a legal trick pulled where the judge uses the criminal code to get away with cutting some giant trees legally, sort of. And the other is where some women folk (Quakers, who are famous for their pacifism) swarm a man with a gun, knock him down, and then, with relish, one of the women smacks him with a large rock.
There might be some value in seeing this movie as a sign of another environmental time. There is a fight back and forth over a stand of big, valuable trees, and the owner of them at one point is the U.S. government. But even that will not save them. The movie feels like a Wild West genre film, but set in the big woods of the coast instead of the deserts or Monument Valley. But there are all the simple good folk (in this case, Quakers), the sheriff and buddies, the good guy with issues, and the general mischief of any cowboy town. In general, substitute lumberman for cowboy.
And substitute Felix E. Feist for John Ford as director. Feist made a series of B-movies, sports movies, and other genre flick, and this really is one of them, even though Kirk Douglas, the main actor, was coming off of two major movies elsewhere. It condemns both the movie and the reviewer to admit I had to skip parts of it, it just got so boring. Even Douglas couldn't lift it up. Even fistfights and gunfights and a huge explosion of a timbered railroad bridge couldn't save it. It isn't a terrible movie, but just routine to the point of "don't bother." Naturally it's better than a lot of dreck on television, and that's where you ought to catch it, some night when nothing better looms, by accident. It might actually be fun if it catches you by surprise.
Two things I noticed that were great. One, there is a legal trick pulled where the judge uses the criminal code to get away with cutting some giant trees legally, sort of. And the other is where some women folk (Quakers, who are famous for their pacifism) swarm a man with a gun, knock him down, and then, with relish, one of the women smacks him with a large rock.