ianlouisiana Review of Timberjack

Timberjack (1955)

Vera Hruba Ralston - a game girl.................

[5/10 · 11 November 2008]

Well,she certainly worked hard and that's a fact.Through most of the movie she appears to be looking desperately at the other actors as if for their approval,like a puppy having mastered a new trick.She gyrates around the saloon,sings in a sub - sub Dietrich fashion a song or two that brings new meaning to the word "banal" before killing the bad guy with a backshot a sniper would have been proud of. In a logging camp full of exotic Europeans with names like Ole and a positive cornucopia of lousy accents Sterling Hayden searches for the truth about his father's death.Nearly as wooden as the logs he wants to send downriver,Mr Hayden is tall and fair and freckled.Unlike Miss Ralston he doesn't seem to care whether anybody likes him or not. Adolph Menjou is rather sweet as Miss Ralston's father who is killed by the bad guy with a single punch to the chin.Perhaps not surprisingly his hat comes off and is later found by Miss Ralston in the bad guy's office.Thus exciting her suspicions.Steady now.... There's plenty of treetop action - enough to set the Health and Safety boys running for the phone - and a lot of manly fistfights. Hoagy Carmichael does his usual piano - playing saloon bar philosopher part and sings a love song to a dog.Go figure. Not so much a negative experience,more a "Oh,is that it?" kind of movie. Just when you think it can't go on for much longer - it doesn't.For connoisseurs of the slightly camp only.