The Big Trees (1952)

Director:

Felix E. Feist

Writers:

Kenneth Earl (story)
John Twist (writer) ...

Release Date:

15 August 1952 (Finland)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

A Quaker colony tries to save the giant sequoias from a timber baron.

Plot Keywords:

Land Claims | Religious Sect | Environmental Issues | False Name | Fire

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Jim Fallon
Eve Miller	...	Alicia Chadwick
Patrice Wymore	...	Daisy Fisher / Dora Figg
Edgar Buchanan	...	Walter 'Yukon' Burns
John Archer	...	Frenchy LeCroix
Alan Hale Jr.	...	Tiny
Roy Roberts	...	Judge Crenshaw
Charles Meredith	...	Elder Bixby
Harry Cording	...	Cleve Gregg
Ellen Corby	...	Sister Blackburn

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (2001)

Filming Locations:

Orick, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

As of 2002, the rights to this film became public domain, and DVD copies that were "digitally remastered" began appearing in 99 Cent stores in LA area in 2004.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the beginning of the film, Jim Fallon appears in the window opening the divided curtain with both hands. Then the curtain on his right-hand side remains open while he holds the other part with his left hand. In the following shot from inside, the part on his right-hand side is closed.

Quotes:

Jim Fallon: Stop thinking so hard, Frenchie. You're liable to get yourself a bad headache.

Movie Connections:

Remake of The Valley of the Giants (1927)

Soundtrack:

THE CHARMING SOUBRETTE ON THE POLICE GAZETTE

Far More Interesting Than The Title Implies

Kirk Douglas offered a very good performances in a movie that I really didn't expect much out of, but that turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Neither the title nor the plot gave me high hopes. The story is about the efforts of a religious community to prevent the cutting down of California's giant redwoods by a Wisconsin lumberman. It doesn't sound particularly exciting, but actually turns out to be pretty good. Douglas is the lumberman - Jim Fallon - a charismatic conniver who seems able to convince anyone of his good intentions, even while he plots to take as much advantage of them as he possibly can. There's some decent enough action, particularly the scene in which Fallon tries to rescue Sister Chadwick (Eve Miller) from the out of control train. There's also good use of humour, provided both by Douglas and Edgar Buchanan as "Yukon" Burns, who becomes first Fallon's right hand man and then his antagonist - and who actually ends up being appointed as a marshall by a local judge (Roy Roberts) who's sympathetic to the religious folk and is willing to twist and turn every law on the book to help them.

That evolution is one of the problems with the movie, however. People change too fast from good guys to bad guys, or from friends into enemies, and it's hard to really understand how the changes came upon them, which sometimes makes it hard to keep track of who's on whose side at any given time, and the final evolution of Fallon - telegraphed as it from the moment he arrives in California - is still hard to believe. I also thought that aside from Douglas and Buchanan, the performances were average at best. Still, it's not a bad watch. 6/10