Every once in a while I come across a title that no one else has reviewed here on the IMDb. Not surprising, as there are an untold number of pictures that haven't seen the light of day until compiled in some of those mega box sets you find in a place like Sam's Club. It's the only way I would have ever come across something like "Park Avenue Logger", a 1937 programmer that combines some offbeat elements and manages to tell a generally coherent story that doesn't seem too implausible.
George O'Brien portrays an intellectual college graduate who his father considers to be a softie, with no bad habits and a penchant for intellectual conversation. I actually got a kick out of that exchange between Grant (O'Brien) and his father's psychologist friend early on, about the 'racial characteristics of the penguin'. Here I thought that the study of nonsense like that was a more modern phenomenon, but now I know better.
It's never really explained or explored why Grant would have taken up professional wrestling as the Masked Marvel, but for 1937, that was a pretty well staged match he had there with the Russian Lion. Primarily to let the viewer know up front that Grant was no lightweight, it was more than evident when he showed up at the Timberlake Camp, sporting a barrel chest and sizable forearms. It was one of those plot points that wasn't thought out too well ahead of time, as if the elder Curran might never have seen his own son in a physical contest or sporting event.
Once at the camp, Grant finds himself involved in some intrigue dealing with a rival logging group, and the pretty young woman (Beatrice Roberts) who runs the operation with her father. The senior Curran's business manager is running a couple sets of books not only to steal from Curran, but to buy out the O'Shea's in one of those classic Western mortgage swindles. It doesn't work of course, as Grant turns the tables on the bad guys and wins over the romantic interest as well.
I'm always amazed by the things I learn in researching these flicks on the IMDb. Ward Bond had a prominent role in this picture and I recall him as a favorite when I was a kid watching 'Wagon Train'. Figuring that this was one of his early screen roles, I was startled to find that by the time he showed up in this one, he had already appeared in over a hundred pictures!
George O'Brien portrays an intellectual college graduate who his father considers to be a softie, with no bad habits and a penchant for intellectual conversation. I actually got a kick out of that exchange between Grant (O'Brien) and his father's psychologist friend early on, about the 'racial characteristics of the penguin'. Here I thought that the study of nonsense like that was a more modern phenomenon, but now I know better.
It's never really explained or explored why Grant would have taken up professional wrestling as the Masked Marvel, but for 1937, that was a pretty well staged match he had there with the Russian Lion. Primarily to let the viewer know up front that Grant was no lightweight, it was more than evident when he showed up at the Timberlake Camp, sporting a barrel chest and sizable forearms. It was one of those plot points that wasn't thought out too well ahead of time, as if the elder Curran might never have seen his own son in a physical contest or sporting event.
Once at the camp, Grant finds himself involved in some intrigue dealing with a rival logging group, and the pretty young woman (Beatrice Roberts) who runs the operation with her father. The senior Curran's business manager is running a couple sets of books not only to steal from Curran, but to buy out the O'Shea's in one of those classic Western mortgage swindles. It doesn't work of course, as Grant turns the tables on the bad guys and wins over the romantic interest as well.
I'm always amazed by the things I learn in researching these flicks on the IMDb. Ward Bond had a prominent role in this picture and I recall him as a favorite when I was a kid watching 'Wagon Train'. Figuring that this was one of his early screen roles, I was startled to find that by the time he showed up in this one, he had already appeared in over a hundred pictures!
