The Big Trees (1952) Poster

(1952)

User Reviews

Review this title
32 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
6/10
Good film with a magnificent interpretation by Kirk Douglas
ma-cortes6 May 2005
The movie talks about a greedy lumberman called Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) who tries to make himself the owner of a redwood with impressive trees called ¨Sequoias¨ placed on California . A group of religious Quakers care the rousing trees like a holy mission . As a Quaker colony tries to save the giant sequoias from a timber baron . Meanwhile , Kirk falls in love with the leader (Eve Miller) , befriends a kind old man (Edgar Buchanan , a real scene stealer) and confronts enemies . Fallon will have to confront some of his own workers to vanquish the battle . The film deals upon the taking on amongst nasty timbermen and peaceful homesteaders .

The picture blends action western , a love story , thrills and stimulating outdoors . The landscapes with the Sequoais's woods are spellbound and breathtaking . There are excellent action sequences , as a train derailing where Kirk Douglas demonstrates his energy as action hero . Acting by main actors is top notch similarly to support cast (Edgar Buchanan , Patrice Wymore , Alan Hale and John Archer) in which everybody is awesome . Cinematography by Bert Glennon is glamorous and colorful but is quite worn-out ; in fact , in 2002 the rights to this film became public domain . This film compellingly directed by Felix Feist results to be a remake from ¨Valley of giants (1938)¨ by William Keighley with stock footage taken from this film and was starred by Wayne Morris , Claire Trevor and Alan Hale . The flick will appeal to landscape lovers and Kirk Douglas fans . Rating: Good . Well worth watching .
34 out of 45 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Old-fashioned atypical Western laden by complex legal/financial talk, but has several highlights
Wuchakk6 April 2018
RELEASED IN 1952 and directed by Felix Feist, "The Big Trees" stars Kirk Douglas as a conniving lumber baron, Jim Fallon, who schemes to make it rich in Northern California in 1900 when a new law means large tracks of land are up for grabs to whoever can pay the fees. He plans to cut down the mighty redwoods but a colony of homesteading Quaker-like Christians are unwavering in their resolve to save the largest of the sacred trees, which are the ones Fallon wants most. Edgar Buchanan plays Fallon's sidekick-turned-marshal in the Redwoods, Walter "Yukon Lucky" Burns.

This was a remake of Warner Brother's "Valley of the Giants" from fifteen years earlier. While Douglas worked for free to get out of his WB contract it doesn't seem like it, as he has his usual gusto. The old-fashioned tone will likely turn off modern viewers but the environmental message was certainly ahead of its time. The story lacks drive, however, due to the convoluted dialog about legalities & finance; it's as though you need a doctorate on California land law in order to follow what's happening.

Fallon (Douglas) naturally becomes smitten by religious beauty Alicia Chadwick (Eve Miller) while having dubious links to blonde showgirl Dora "Daisy Fisher" Figg (Patrice Wymore). Speaking of whom, jaw-dropping Wymore has a memorable song & dance sequence that's worth the price of admission, particularly when she, um, never mind.

There are several other highlights, like a scene that shows how ancient the redwoods are (e.g. they were fully grown when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066). Furthermore, there are fistfights, a falling tree that crushes a cabin, a dynamited dam, a thrilling runaway train sequence, a huge trestle that collapses under the train, a sacrificial death and a good moral(s).

I should add that the script perpetuates the myth that "The Lord helps those who help themselves" comes from the Bible. While a worthy proverb, it's not Scripture.

Watch out for Alan Hale Jr. (the Skipper from Gilligan's Island) playing Tiny.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 29 minutes and was shot in Redwood Groves, Orick and Eureka, California. WRITERS: John Twist and James R. Webb wrote the screenplay from Kenneth Earl's novel.

GRADE: B-/C+
5 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Douglas at his Most Charismatic
gpachovsky9 February 2021
"The Big Trees" is one of those entertaining films regularly churned out by major studios in the early to mid-50s which were fun for the whole family and offended no one. Usually directed in efficient, workmanlike fashion (in this case, by Felix Feist) and essentially plot-driven by some sort of conflict that required physical measures to resolve, these programmers moved along with a fast pace and lots of action that left little room for subtleties but usually gave the moviegoing public its bang for the buck.

The conflict here is a stalemate between entrepreneurish lumbermen who want to cut down the giant Redwoods in California's northlands to sell the lumber for huge profits and a Quaker-like religious sect that has already settled on the land and views these big trees as majestic creations of the Almighty that should be left untouched. The former are led by smooth-talking Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) who, in trying to take advantage of a recent Act of Congress, oozes his unctuous charm to gain the settlers confidence for a peaceful live-and-let-live coexistence. When the latter continue to defend their big trees - especially Elder Bixley (Charles Meredith) and his daughter Alicia Chadwick (Eve Miller) - he resorts to legal maneuvers which are again stymied. The deadlock is finally breached when rival lumbermen, who have even fewer scruples than Fallon, move in for a piece of the action and violence ensues.

Several commenters on this page have already rightly stated that "The Big Trees" is Kirk Douglas's least favorite of all his films. That's understandable when one considers the many classics and near-classics in his filmography - "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers", "Out of the Past", "Champion", "Detective Story", "Ace in the Hole", "The Bad and the Beautiful", "Lust for Life", "Paths of Glory", "Spartacus", "Lonely are the Brave", and "Seven Days in May" by directors such as Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Billy Wilder, William Wyler, Vincent Minnelli, Stanley Kubrick and John Frankenheimer - it's no wonder that a medium-budgeted actioner about fortune seeking loggers at odds with an environmentally-conscious religious sect should find itself sitting at the back of the class.

And yet I think Kirk has been too hard on this movie. The outdoor locations, filmed near Humbolt County in Northern California are at once awe inspiring and breathtaking, the colour (on good prints) gorgeous, the supporting cast featuring Edgar Buchanan and Patrice Wymore more than adequate, and the action scenes, particularly the runaway train, set the adrenaline rushing.

Best of all is Douglas himself. He has never been more charismatic than he is here. Whereas in other films he brought an unnerving intensity that sometimes bordered on paranoia to his hard-driven complex characters, he is here at once a likeable scoundrel: jovial, charming, gentlemanly yet virile and athletic, performing his own stunts when called upon. A remarkable performance, made more remarkable by the fact that he made this picture for no salary in order to end his contract with Warner Bros. He easily could have sleepwalked through the role but didn't, or at least didn't appear to. A very professional gesture.

What weakens "The Big Trees" is the lack of a strong villain. John Archer (Frenchy) is unable to do much with a part that is badly underwritten. He is neither cunning nor threatening as he inexplicably transmogrifies from Mr. Bland to Mr. Bad and certainly does not deserve the horrific fate that eventually befalls him. Fortunately, Kirk Douglas is there to remind viewers what star power - even in a programmer - is all about.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Had The Ingredients To Be A Better Movie
Snow Leopard17 January 2006
While certainly watchable, "The Big Trees" had the makings of what could have been a better, perhaps much better, movie. With Kirk Douglas in the lead role, a supporting cast of solid character actors, settings that lend themselves to visually appealing scenery, and a story that raises worthwhile environmental and ethical issues, it could have been quite good.

As a predatory but charismatic lumberman, Douglas has a role that allows him to use some of his best strengths as an actor, and the scenario provides him with two main characters to play off of, with Edgar Buchanan as a loyal but incorruptibly honest associate, and Eve Miller as an idealist determined to save the redwood forest that Douglas's character plans to exploit. Buchanan is especially believable in his role.

The story and script, though, don't give Douglas or the others a lot to work with. The story never tackles the most important issues head-on, nor does it explore the most significant of the possible tensions in the characters' relationships with one another. The important environmental questions and other such topics are dealt with only on a surface level, and aside from Douglas's own character, who changes rather abruptly and unconvincingly, there is little character development. The religious angle was certainly well-intentioned, but it never seems to fit in comfortably with the other story elements.

It's still all right for lighter entertainment, and there are some good scenes. Then too, when Douglas gets the chance, he can be quite interesting to watch in this kind of role. As long as you don't expect too much, it might be worth seeing, but it missed quite a few opportunities to be a much more substantial movie.
15 out of 17 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Far More Interesting Than The Title Implies
sddavis6317 February 2008
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
6 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Kirk Douglas Doing What He Does Best
dglink14 October 2015
Legendary star Kirk Douglas now nears his 100th birthday, and he has left a legacy of great performances in both classic and routine movies over his long career. Douglas was skillful at playing the dastardly villain, who could convincingly convert into a stalwart hero after some life-altering event. His broad toothy grin and dimpled chin were enigmatic enough to suggest either the dark side or the light. Jim Fallon, the greedy lumber baron turned tree hugger, is one of those Douglas roles that shift from the darkness to enlightenment. Set around 1900 in California, "The Big Trees" follows Fallon from his pursuit of government land, where he wants to cut down giant Sequoias and profit from their lumber, to his unlikely romance with a Quaker widow, played by Eve Miller, who wants to save the sacred trees. Of course, love casts out greed in this routine, predictable, but entertaining film that feels like a western, although set too late in the 19th century to fully qualify for the genre.

Douglas dominates the movie, and he is fun to watch. Douglas is ably supported by colorful veteran Edgar Buchanan as his gun-slinging sidekick and by such other familiar players as Ellen Corby and Alan Hale. Trees fall, babies are born, and tragedies strike, which alter the course of events and character motivations. Director Felix E. Feist maintains a decent pace, and a climactic runaway train generates some suspense and excitement. "The Big Trees" may not be among Douglas's timeless films, but this tale of logging days in California is better than average, and Douglas is in fine form and always engaging to watch.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
Kirk Douglas did this one on the arm
bkoganbing4 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
In his autobiography, The Ragman's Son, Kirk Douglas was telling about how badly he wanted to get out of his Warner Brothers contract. He made Jack Warner and offer he couldn't refuse, a picture for nothing, zero, zip, bupkis and he'd be released. Jack Warner took him up and the result was The Big Trees.

Now getting a top star to work for nothing, you'd have thought that Warner would get him something good. Instead Kirk Douglas was saddled with an even worse than usual programmer and something he described as the worst film he ever made.

Kirk is a two fisted lumber baron who goes out to the Northern California area to cut down those giant redwoods. A Quaker group who's settled there, ain't having none of that and the story unfolds.

The players all look so totally bored. And the way the script is written you have absolutely no liking for Douglas's character Jim Fallon or believe it when he switches sides. In fact the villain of the piece, John Archer is treated like a doormat by Douglas when he was working for him. Watching the movie I couldn't blame him for knifing Douglas in their business.

Ditto when gal pal Patrice Wymore sells a dam to Douglas's enemies and momentarily throws our hero for a loop.

Best thing you could say about this is that it does have some nice special effects with Kirk Douglas riding on the runaway lumber train. The scene in How the West Was Won was copied and improved with Cinerama from the Big Trees.

They should have just left the forest alone.
32 out of 46 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Not a Bad Movie
gavin69429 December 2016
In 1900, unscrupulous timber baron Jim Fallon plans to take advantage of a new law and make millions off California redwood. Much of the land he hopes to grab has been homesteaded by a Quaker colony, who try to persuade him to spare the giant sequoias, but these are the very trees he wants most.

Kirk Douglas says this was a "bad movie" he made simply to get out of a contract. Well, I have to disagree with him. While not a great movie, or one that stands out as the best of his career (like "Ace in the Hole"), it is far from a bad movie. At the very least, it is on par with any other western of its time (though this is not a "western" in the strict sense).

I don't know enough about Quakers to know if they were in California in 1900 or had some special attachment to old trees. I suppose at least some had to be there, but the tree part seems odd. But I really don't know much about modern Quakers.
2 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
So routine it's a bore, but it's really not at all terrible.
secondtake19 December 2009
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.
9 out of 13 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Not bad
arfdawg-11 April 2014
In 1900, unscrupulous timber baron Jim Fallon plans to take advantage of a new law and make millions off California redwood.

Much of the land he hopes to grab has been homesteaded by a Quaker colony, who try to persuade him to spare the giant sequoias.

But these are the very trees he wants most.

Expert at manipulating others, Fallon finds that other sharks are at his own heels, and forms an unlikely alliance.

First off Mike Douglas now looks and acts exactly like his father Kirk, who in this movie had his hair dyed Gold.

Yes, gold.

The film is in Technicolor and the color still pops.

The movie is very typical of the year and the genre.

It's not bad.
2 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Western tycoon tall tale
djensen115 July 2006
Okay western tells the tale of Kirk Douglas as a would-be lumber baron with more charm than business savvy. Not as good as it could have been with a little sharper direction, but the dialog has some spark and Douglas shines like a new penny when he smiles.

He gets adequate support from the usual suspects, with Patrice Wymore particularly good as his dance hall prostitute girlfriend. Eve Miller as the real love interest is a bit flat by comparison, even granted that she's stuck in the role of a holy roller trying to protect California's giant redwoods.

The plot manages to get genuinely clever at times, with the local judge conspiring to help the Quakers foil Douglas's lumber scheme, Douglas scheming right back, and then the whole thing going topsy-turvy. Still, something is missing (and the faded print I saw didn't help) but the ending goes big to try to save it and nearly succeeds. Worth the time for fans of Douglas, but not a must-see title.
8 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
A 1950's movie with great action set on a historic event.
jjmmcd7 February 2008
I bought a copy of this film for a very small price at a job lot store. The company, Global Multimedia Corporation, said this was a digitally remastered copy, called Value DVD. It was amusing that the cover presented Kirk Douglas and Alicia Chadwick. Alicia Chadwick is actually a major character in the story who was played by Eve Miller.

The color of this restored master was indeed very good on my plasma TV. The story was set on a historical event which took place during the McKinley administration in 1900. Apparently, land with the giant redwoods was opened up for grabs by allowing lumber companies to pay for new claims, even for land which had been settled by homesteaders under an 1868 act of Congress. Our hero Jim Fallon heads west with cronies from Wisconsin to make his fortune. As the story unfolds with some tragedy, he is forsaken by former associates, and warms to his new friends, the Quakers who had settled the land before. Indeed, he turns the tide in their favor, thus redeeming himself, and winning the girl.

The movie was excellent with great stunts, seemingly performed by Douglas himself. It is really instructive to see how much good film action was done long before digital effects. Indeed, this movie could give you a real taste for quality movies of mid-20th century.
10 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
An enjoyable 'late western'
Tweekums13 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Set in the year 1900, many years later than most westerns, this film tells the story of Jim Fallon, an unscrupulous but likable timber baron. He has plans to make it big in California where a new law means large swathes of land are up for grabs to anybody who can pay the fees. He is planning to cut down the mighty redwood trees but the Quakers who already there are determined to save the largest and oldest of the trees… the ones Fallon wants the most. They do just about everything legal to stop Fallon but he is willing to play dirty and forms a business partnership with rival loggers. It isn't too long before they turn on him and he starts to side with the settlers.

This isn't a classic western but it is a fun way to pass an hour and a half. The story has some decent enough action and an inevitable romance. This romance is a love/hate relationship between Fallon and Alicia Chadwick, the daughter of the Quaker preacher. Early on I was surprised to see Kirk Douglas playing an obviously dishonest character as he is obviously the protagonist… I was less surprised when events lead to him seeing the error of his ways. The setting, among the giant redwoods, is impressive and makes a nice change from the scenery we see in many westerns. While the film shows its age at times the environmental message seems ahead of its times. Kirk Douglas does a solid enough job as Fallon and is ably supported by Eve Miller as Alicia Chadwick and Edgar Buchanan as Walter 'Yukon' Burns amongst others. The action is okay; some bits such as a train crash are rather good while others are not so impressive. Overall this isn't a must see but is worth checking out if you are a fan of westerns.
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
A standard action movie, and not a very good one
JamesHitchcock10 January 2010
"The Big Trees" is a Western, set in northern California around 1900. The main character is Jim Fallon, a timber baron who has recently moved to the state from Wisconsin. Fallon's motive is to take advantage of a new law which will allow him to stake a claim to the area's dense forests. Fallon especially has his eyes on the giant redwoods, the world's largest (and among its oldest) trees which he believes will net him a handsome profit. There is, however, a problem. A religious community have made their home in the forest and are determined to save the trees, which they regard as symbols of the power and majesty of God. So sacred are the trees to them that they even hold their services outdoors in a redwood grove rather than in a church. (The sect have some similarities with both the Amish and the Quakers, although they are probably not intended to be identified with either). A further complication arises when Fallon falls for Alicia, an attractive young widow who is a member of the sect.

In the first half of the film Fallon is portrayed as a rogue, smooth and plausible but unscrupulous and not always likable. About halfway through, however, he undergoes a change of heart and becomes one of the good guys, fighting alongside the sect in order to save the trees from his former associates, who turn out to be even more greedy and unscrupulous than he ever was.

The film has some good points. The photography of the Californian forests is well done and there are some good action sequences, including a scene where Kirk Douglas leaps onto a runaway train . The theme is a potentially interesting one; environmentalism was not as hot a topic in the early fifties as it has become since, so a film with a conservationist theme was something of a novelty. Moreover, the film gives an interesting slant to the subject, showing the religious roots of the environmental movement.

Despite this, however, the film also has its weaknesses. The plot is excessively complex; at times it seems as though you need a thorough knowledge of Californian land law in order to understand what is going on. It also goes through too many twists and turns, with characters assumed to be bad turning out to be good and vice versa, with abrupt changes of mood. At times it all seems fairly light-hearted and then turns into serious drama as two major characters meet violent deaths in quick succession. The acting is generally poor. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, Douglas' best film or best performance, but the supporting cast are no better. Overall, "The Big Trees" tries to be unusual but ends up as just a standard action movie, and not a very good one. 5/10
8 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Big Trees-It's No Arbor Day **1/2
edwagreen1 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Sprawling drama is uneven because you wouldn't expect some of the characters and the story line to go down the path it does.

Kirk Douglas is in fine form as the unscrupulous lumber barren smitten by a Quaker-like woman in California. Her father winds up dead after a tree from the Douglas lumber company comes down on the house and crushes him. He knew the tree was coming. Douglas gets blamed for his death thanks in part to two of his vicious partners.

In addition, what makes this uneven is the part taken by Edgar Buchanan. Buchanan, as a gunslinger, come on. What gives here? When Buchanan goes with Douglas to Indiana, he is taken with that religion and becomes sheriff of the town.

This is just too hard to fathom and the ending is as predictable as they come.
5 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
The conflict how the collective, that personal ambitions and interests with the social norms, laws and moral principles
bilowkojy5 May 2013
In a respective recorded events that occur at the turn of 19th to 20th century in the United States in California during the conflict how the collective, that personal ambitions and interests with the social norms, laws and moral principles they the first are the winners.

The movie "The Big Trees (1952)" attempts to provide answers to above question. This is the weaker the developed film, which is the biggest drawback inconsistent flow of the plot with the result that the action is difficult to connect. However, if the creators of this, still under a mediocre film, viewers would like to point out the moral dilemmas of the actors in this drama they are somewhat succeed.

Unscrupulous Jim Fallon, greedy of money, wants to be all they could enrich the exploitation of the giant sequoias whom opposes the Quaker colony which considers that is the sequoia tree a sacred tree. In the ensuing conflict gradually come to see the moral problems of almost all characters and even members of the Quaker community, led by their leader Alicia Chadwick. How many events are taking place most of the characters , because its personal interests, till the end discovers and shows their hypocrisy. Mainly guilt of Jim Fallon many have died in the conflicts, between them is and the father of Alicia Chadwick, which again at the end of the movie, in a well-recorded breakneck ride the train, the unfortunate J. Fallon saves life, so she finally rejects of what little of its moral scruples. Despite everything, she married J. Fallon!

The events typical for the liberal capitalism in the USA from 19th and early 20th century, whose protagonists are the ones most are subject finally to its rules, rejecting their moral principles and they are caught in its vicious network.

A serious drawback of the movie is a mediocre photography and especially poorly recorded a numerous night scenes.

The main actors are more or less succeed to act out characters that have starred. Among them are Kirk Douglas (as Jim Fallon), which is otherwise many times successfully played the violent and unscrupulous characters in its rich film career. There are Eve Miller (as Alicia Chadwick,) and Edgar Buchanan (as Walter 'Yukon' Burns).
1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Better Than Average Adventure Yarn - The Big Trees
arthur_tafero5 February 2021
Despite a storyline that is sappier than the largest redwood tree we see in the film, Kirk Douglas rescues this northwest adventure yarn about an overly ambitious hustler who goes to northern California to make his fortune. This is not Douglas' best film, or anything near it, but he does make a very good scoundrel; the kind women love to swoon over. The script seems to be as tall as some of the trees as well; a very tall tale that needs quite a bit of suspended disbelief. However, the film is entertaining and i can recommend it as better than average viewing.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Kirk Douglas meets the tree cultists -- watch out!
funkyfry4 October 2002
Strictly typical lumberjack story equipped with fistfights, macho talk, and lots of lumber industry stock footage. (In fact, while watching a previous black and white Warner Bros. short from the forties, I noticed that not only was the same lumber footage beeing used, but also the same footage of Kirk Douglas jumping from the hillside onto the train, leading me to ponder whether WB filmed this expensive footage in black and white and also filmed it in color just on the chance they would need such footage in a future color film???). The plot concerns a claim jumping lumber baron (Douglas) who's opposed by a christian cult who believes God loves the redwood trees (where could they possibly have gotten that idea?). Since Douglas falls for the only pretty cultist, he's a cinch to give in and help them against his friends, who include burly lumberjack Alan Hale (always game for timber or naval duty in WB films). This movie can be called mildly entertaining, and that would be saying a lot for it.
7 out of 16 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Douglas' least favorite film.
planktonrules3 December 2020
I have a home in the middle of a redwood forest, so I was thrilled to see "The Big Trees". Imagine my surprise when I then learned that the story was set very close to us--in the Mendocino National Forest. Much of the film was filmed closer to the coast in Eureka...but both are certainly beautiful places and are pretty much unspoiled today...something that might shock folks when they hear of California.

When the story begins in 1900, Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) is trying to fast-talk his men, as he keeps making promises but he's a lying huckster. Now his latest scheme is to get rich off California redwood lumber...and he has a new partner, Yukon Burns (Edgar Buchanan), and he sends the man out west to investigate the land before he arrives a bit later. When Fallon arrives, he learns that Yukon has been taken in by some very nice Quakers and this partner doesn't realize Fallon is a scheming jerk who wants to cheat those folks off their land.

So is this any good? Well, not especially. Although Warner Brothers did some nice location shooting and filmed the movie in color, it really is a B-western with only a few minor changes. This time, instead of the baddies trying to steal all the land for their cattle empires (the most familiar plot in these B-westerns), it's folks stealing land for trees. And, although Kirk Douglas stars in this one, he really wasn't a big star yet...though he was well on his way. But I couldn't love this slick movie because some of it simply doesn't make sense--especially the love interest. We are to believe that although Fallon, at least indirectly, was responsible for a man's death, only moments later in the film the dead man's daughter announces she's in love with Fallon! Plus, Fallon never really deserved this love...he was an underhanded jerk...at least until the obligatory redemption at the end. Overall, a nice looking film....and I liked the trees...but one that I can understand why Douglas himself wasn't very proud of the movie. Overall, watchable but not much more.
2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Didn't you learn any other word other than money?
hitchcockthelegend11 March 2012
The Big Trees is directed by Felix Feist and adapted to screenplay by John Twist and James R. Webb from the novel written by Kenneth Earl. It stars Kirk Douglas, Eve Miller, Edgar Buchanan, Patrice Wymore and John Archer. Music is by Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by Bert Glennon.

In 1900, the Congress of the United States passed a law which made a young man in Wisconsin decide to prove-that money grows on trees.

Enter Kirk Douglas as unscrupulous lumber Barron Jim Fallon, who sets off to Northern California to make a fortune out of the giant trees that have grown there. But his two-faced tactics rub too many people up the wrong way and he is in danger of losing his heart to Alcia Chadwick (Miller).

Bringing in the Sheaves.

A remake of Warner Brothers' 1938 Valley of the Giants, The Big Trees is one of those films that looks good on the page but plays out as rather dull. When the trees are the best thing in your movie then you know you got problems! Cast are mostly fine, even Douglas gives it a good go, this in spite of it being a final studio assignment worked for free to get himself out of his Warner's contract. Narrative features worthy topics such as religious faith, care of the land and the evil of greed, and a couple of fine action sequences involving a train and a dam briefly lift the spirits. But the journey to these destinations is a very slow one, the script just isn't perky or intelligent enough to hold the attention, whilst the ending can be seen from way back in Wisconsin. We do get a nifty song and dance number, The Soubrette on the Police Gazette, performed by Wymore, that is enjoyable if oddly out of sync with tone of the movie. Prints of the film available haven't helped either, where the Technicolor looks washed out and not doing justice to Glennon's photography out of Orick, California.

Tough to get through and instantly forgettable, avoid unless you happen to really dig trees. 3/10
2 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Early Environmentalist Film
lyonefein1 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This is a story about a young opportunist and slick-talker (Kirk Douglas as Fallon) who leaves his floundering lumber operation in Wisconsin in order to exploit a piece of Federal Lands Claims legislation that went into effect in 1900. Hoping to make a quick fortune, he heads for northern California and the vast tracks of Redwoods and Sequoias there.

The plot's central conflict is developed when Fallon/Douglas encounters a community of nature-loving religious pacifists who have been living for years on the land that he hopes to harvest. Much attention is paid, in this film, to the simple arguments presented by these people who consider the giant trees to be sacred reminders of God's greatness. The forest is their church, and they strive to convince would-be (de)foresters such as Fallon that the trees are more valuable left standing than being cut down and used for lumber.

Douglas' performance is nuanced and convincing, as he portrays the deep internal transformations that his character goes through. In addition, there is a truly remarkable action sequence--clearly the great grand-daddy of all of Tom Cruise's (et al.) exploits--in which Douglas leaps aboard a runaway train.

In a silent "wink" to savvy audience members, the mock-Spanish name of the California county where all this takes place is written on a sign over the door of the courthouse: San Hedrin.
7 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
"I Live By The Board Foot."
rmax30482312 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Somewhere near the opening, in 1900, the sly and manipulative young money monger, Kirk Douglas, bamboozles the good folk of the Wisconsin town into following him out to northern California where Congress has just unfettered the lumber companies and enabled them to make fortunes by destroying the ancient redwood forests.

In Douglas' maturity, after he'd achieved stardom, an interviewer asked him which was the worst movie he'd ever made. Douglas didn't have to think long before coming up with either "The Indian Fighter" or "The Big Trees". The brain is a curious organ. I can't recall which movie Douglas was more ashamed of but I can remember learning in the sixth grade that a single giant Sequoia, cousin to the redwood, could provide lumber enough for seven houses or seven million toothpicks. Do you realize how much seven million toothpicks is worth?

Of course, the wanton destruction of the redwood forests costs nothing because you can't put a dollar sign in front of something whose only value is spiritual and symbolic. Those redwoods were fully grown when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066. There's a bristle-cone pine in the nearby Sierras that is older than Cleopatra. But it's small, knotty, and gnarled. I doubt you'd get many good toothpicks out of it but I imagine we'll get around to replacing it with a shopping mall sooner or later. Douglas salivates at the prospect of chopping down all these trees. It's a short-term position. As E. B. White wrote: "I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management."

Thank you for your kind attention, and now if someone will help me down from the speaker's platform? Thank you. Wait -- my foot. Okay.

Douglas has sent a good-natured sidekick, Edgar Buchanan, ex-dentist, ahead to set the stage for the arrival of him and his lusty crowd of lumberjacks. I suppose it could be argued that the name of the town in which Buchanan intends to locate the business is coincidental, but really -- San Hedrin? Wikipedia on the sanhedrin: "The Sanhedrin (Hebrew: סַנְהֶדְרִין sanhedrîn, Greek: Συνέδριον, synedrion, "sitting together," hence "assembly" or "council") was an assembly of twenty to twenty-three men appointed in every city in the Land of Israel." They were a kind of court, as old as the redwoods, and managed to condemn the founder of Christianity, so the tellers of tales say.

So with the blessings of McKinley's congress, Douglas and his men lay claim to the redwoods, despite the objections of the religious sect that has been homesteading there. It turns into a legal tangle, with bills, claims, filing of ownerships, and the like. Three sides emerge. Douglas and his smooth instrumentalizing of the law; a gang of hooligans who'd love to get rid of Douglas and file their own claims; and the religious sect with their lofty but dull pieties. Some people shift their allegiances. Buchanan sides with the sect, and Douglas' timber boss colludes with the gravel-voiced roughnecks.

Pretty Patrice Wymore sings the requisite saloon song on a stage; there is a fist fight on a footbridge; a falling tree that crushes a cabin and the man inside it; a trestle collapses under a runaway train and everything falls down into a river; a friend loses his life protecting Douglas and Douglas sees the light.

It must have been "Indian Fighter" that Douglas put at the bottom of his list because, despite the pedestrian direction, often clumsy dialog, and hackneyed plot, this one is kind of exciting. First it's a quiet duel of writs. But it turns action packed and noble.
1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
I wooden recommend it.
yonhope4 December 2004
Hi, Everyone,

This movie lumbers along. I would (wood) be going out on a limb if I said it was exciting, but it has some good moments. The runaway train sequence is OK, but not up to some other movie runaway trains, like Runaway Train. The scenes with Kirk (or his stuntman) jumping onto a train work very well. He was in good physical condition when this was made. His closeups are even exciting during the action sequence.

Kirk Douglas has been much better in many other movies. He looks athletic here and he acts adequately. Edgar Buchanan is miscast, even though he does a good job as a tough guy, of sorts. I would have tried to get Victor Mature or maybe Robert Mitchum for the part Edgar did.

If you like train movies, try The Train with Burt Lancaster or Silver Streak with Gene Wilder. For better train wrecks, try Greatest Show on Earth or Bridge on the River Kwai.

There is one musical number that is done well. Beautiful scenery galore. A couple of good stunts. Not so good fight scenes. This would be a good film for a double feature Kirk Douglas night, but it is not his best.

I will leaf you now.

Tom Willett
12 out of 24 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
3/10
The Valley of the Giants
wes-connors21 October 2011
In 1900, lumber mill owner Kirk Douglas (as James "Jim" B. Fallon) moves from Wisconsin west, where he hopes to make a fortune chopping down California's giant sequoia trees. After surveying the timber, Mr. Douglas learns religious homesteaders consider the 4,000 year old redwood trees to be a sacred, historical testament of God. Douglas is attracted to what he calls "wonderfully proportioned" widow Eve Miller (as Alicia Chadwick). She's a hugger, but Douglas thinks, "A tree's a tree." Arriving later, blonde showgirl Patrice Wymore (as Dora "Daisy Fisher" Figg) carries a torch for Douglas. His former goodwill ambassador Edgar Buchanan (as Walter "Yukon Lucky" Burns) decides to do the Lord's work. "Tom" the cat gets tossed on screen. While anything's possible, "The Big Trees" is apparently the last re-make of Wallace Reid's "The Valley of the Giants" (1919). This well was definitely dry.

*** The Big Trees (2/5/52) Felix Feist ~ Kirk Douglas, Eve Miller, Patrice Wymore, Edgar Buchanan
1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Another (ANY Other) Part Of The Forest
writers_reign9 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The way Kirk Douglas tells it in his autobiography, desperate to be released from his contract with Warners, he offered to do a picture, any picture, entirely free of charge in return for his freedom. It may well be that Jack Warner, in accepting this offer, attempted to kill two birds with one stone - get a freebie from Douglas, who was just becoming a 'name' and stick him in a triple-distilled turkey that would make him if not unemployable then at least undesirable by any of the majors. As we know this ploy - if that is what it was - backfired disastrously and Douglas went on to super stardom but I can't help wondering what he found so bad about, for example, Young Man With A Horn, in which he was top-billed as a fictional trumpet player based on the legendary Bix Biederbecke. Here he walks through a role as a ruthless lumberman in conflict with the Quakers who seek to preserve the giant redwoods which they see as God's bounty as Douglas sees as so much lumber. Barely worth a glance.
1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
An error has occured. Please try again.

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed