UNLIMITED STREAMING
WITH PRIME VIDEO
TRY 30-DAY TRIAL
Home > Western >

Guns of the Timberland

Guns of the Timberland (1960)

February. 01,1960
|
5.5
|
NR
| Western

Logger Jim Hadley and his lumberjack crew are looking for new forest to cut. They locate a prime prospect outside the town of Deep Wells. The residents of Deep Wells led by Laura Riley are opposed to the felling of the trees, believing that losing them would cause mudslides during the heavy rains. Conflict between the town's residents and the loggers is inevitable.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

weezeralfalfa
1960/02/01

Caught this much under-rated film on a Jeanne Crain memorial day at TCM. Although the title suggests that guns were a prominent part of this lumberjacking drama, actually fists, dynamite, falling trees, a forest fire and angry words do most of the damage in the many confrontations between the loggers and local valley ranchers plus townies, and sometimes between loggers.The plot is rather similar to that of the previous "The Big Trees" and its predecessor "Valley of the Giants". However, instead of the point of saving the trees merely because of their extreme size and age, the point here is to prevent gross soil erosion from clear-cutting a forest on a steep mountain slope. The ranchers and townies below realize that, without the trees, their pastures and town below will likely soon be destroyed by floods and the accompanying mud and silt. In this respect , the point of the film actually is much closer to that of the '37 "Gold is Where You Find It", which dramatizes the historical flooding and sedimentation of downstream towns and cultivated fields, after extensive blasting of gold-bearing CA river bluffs with high pressure water hoses. It also differs from "The Big Trees" in that, instead of the lumber baron giving up his logging life in favor of the simple life of the tree huggers, the horsewoman rancher(Jeanne Crain, as Laura Riley). who helped lead the opposition to the loggers, seemingly implausibly runs off with the lumber baron.Jeanne Crain, in her mid-30s, is stunning looking, and quite charismatic as a dominant voice in the vehement objections of the valley people to the loggers, headed by Jim Hadley(Alan Ladd) and Monte Walker(Gilbert Roland). I'd much rather have Kirk Douglas("The Big Trees") or someone equally dynamic appearing and acting in the lead. Yes, it's rather difficult to imagine feisty Riley getting too excited in a romantic way over sleepy looking and often acting Ladd, as Jim, especially after their many hostile confrontations. Even during the height their fight over logging the trees, they incongruously steal a passionate kiss, as a hint of the possible future. I think we can rationalize her turnabout as due to a combo of 1) recognizing a very similar determined personality in Jim 2)Jim's belated changed attitude toward logging the disputed forest, 3) his concern for her badly injured adopted son from a tree fall, 4) his heroic rescue of badly injured partner Monte from the forest fire. Perhaps she was also attracted to a move-around life, after a life stuck on her ranch and little town. We see a similar transformation of Doris Day in a western setting, in "Calamity Jane", released the following year, and again in "The Ballad of Josie", with an implied message for contemporary women.The drama between the valley folk vs. the loggers, and within the loggers, is well done and maintains interest. Yes, near the end,, it gets a little crazy, with people switching sides and undecided what to do. Gilbert Roland, as Monte, wants to keep on fighting after Jim decides further fighting isn't worth it and after Riley shows him a neighboring ghost town after the forest above was clear-cut. The only gun battle is near the end, when Monty and Jim duel after Monte uses dynamite to clear the trees that the valley people felled over the logging road. After Jim wounds Monte in the right shoulder, he runs into the forest and sets fire to some pine needles, which starts a fire. Monte must have realized that he would surely die in this fire, as he was now weak from loss of blood. Clearly, he momentarily wanted to destroy this forest by fire, thus extracting vengeance on the hostile valley people. Then, Jim risks his life trying to find and carry Monte out of the fire, even knowing Monte might shoot him. After his apparently successful rescue, Monte soon died anyway, probably mostly from blood loss. Monte's death symbolizes the end of mindless government-approved short-term forest exploitation, as applied to this area. It also symbolically opens up the possibility of a new partner for Jim, in the person of Riley(We can see a similar symbolism in many other films, for example: "The Big Trees" and "The Far Country").Frankie Avalon, then a heart throb on the rock and roll scene, is included to hopefully attract more teenagers in the audience. He mainly plays Riley's adopted orphan son, who becomes the loggers only semi-friend. In fact, he says he would like to become a logger, despite his small body frame. After nearly killed by a falling tree, Jim talks him into staying on his family's ranch. He has one rock and roll scene, which looks totally out of sync with the rest of the film, which clearly is scripted to be before the advent of motor vehicles. He also has a solitary love song relating to his girlfriend Jane(Alana Ladd). His acting is a bit stiff. He would return for a part in the classic western "The Alamo", before costarring in an endless series of beach and bikini musical romantic comedies.In conclusion, this film succeeds in making its point about the dangers of clear-cutting erosion-vulnerable forests, while providing an action-packed conflict story at the local level. The various character actors are all fine. Just, producer Alan Ladd should have found someone more dynamic-looking to play Jim. Also, the title is lousy.

More
MartinHafer
1960/02/02

Aside from a plot that would become more and more relevant as the decade progressed as well as a chance to see Alan Ladd's daughter, Alana, I can't see much about this dull little film that would encourage me to recommend it or see it again. Like most of Alan Ladd's later films, it's very listless and dull. Plus, I really am not sure what the message was nor do I think the folks making the film knew either.The film begins with some loggers coming to clear the land. However, the locals are very unhappy as they are concerned about the ecological effects this might have on the town below. This is understandable. However, instead of trying to work with the loggers or go through the courts to stop them, some of the locals (led by Lyle Bettger and Jeanne Craine) decide that pretty much anything is fair to stop the tree cutting. During most of the town's dirty tricks, the boss of the logging outfit (Ladd) is amazingly complacent. In fact, this is his mood through almost all the film--like he's only semi-conscious. As a result, one of his men, Monty (Gilbert Roland) has had enough and has decided to fight fire with fire, so to speak. Then, and only then, does the boss rouse out of his near slumber.I know it might sound rather nasty, but at this point in his career, Alan Ladd was a hard-core alcoholic. Because of this, he began to look puffy and his acting became much more muted and slow. I really think this is a serious problem in "Guns of the Timberland". However, it's NOT the biggest problem. This problem is the writing. The film doesn't seem to know WHAT the message is and many of the characters are, as a result, very inconsistent. Too often, folks behave in ways that defy common sense as well as who they have been throughout the film--particularly Ladd and Craine. Overall, the film is sluggish and dull and this is rather sad, as in his prime, Ladd was an exciting actor. Here, he's as dull as dish water.

More
bkoganbing
1960/02/03

Kirk Douglas said the worst film he ever did was The Big Trees, in fact he did it for no salary in order to buy his way out of a Warner Brothers contract. Like Guns Of The Timberland, it's a logging story and was a bad step in the career of both stars.The problem with Alan Ladd, producer and star of Guns Of The Timberland was that there weren't too many steps left for him. Douglas did his timber disaster at the beginning of his career, Ladd towards the end.Ladd and Gilbert Roland are partners in a timber concern and they've got a contract to cut logs in the territory of Jeanne Crain's ranch. The problem for Jeanne and the rest of the valley is that it will leave no watershed for flooding and as her foreman Lyle Bettger so aptly puts it, her cattle will be eating mud next year.Of course the sight of Jeanne in a nice tight fitting cowgirl outfit was enough to make Ladd only concerned about one log in his life. But Roland wants to fight and therein lies the conflict.Like Douglas in The Big Trees, Ladd's conversion to the cause of environmentalism is a bit too unconvincing. And Gilbert Roland going berserk is not the Gilbert Roland I'm used to on the screen. I really hated him in this and Gilbert Roland is one of my favorite players.Ladd produced as well as starred in Guns Of The Timberland and in order to get a little box office from the young, he had current teen heart throb Frankie Avalon make his screen debut opposite his own daughter Alana. I don't think Frankie got any big hit records out of Guns Of The Timberland, he did sing two forgettable songs here.But this was not the worst film Alan Ladd made. That would be next year in Duel Of The Champions, but he was definitely tobogganing down career wise in Guns Of The Timberland.

More
Nazi_Fighter_David
1960/02/04

Alan Ladd is cast as Jim Hadley, who, with his crew of lumberjacks, is looking for a new forest to cut... But Hadley and crew soon find that they will have to fight for their next load of wood...The residents of the valley town of Deep Wells, led by Laura Riley (Jeanne Crain), realize that without the natural protection provided by the surrounding woodlands, their ranches and homes would be buried by mudslides during the first heavy rains...The interests of the inhabitants to drive out the intruders start with their refusal to give horses or supplies of any kind, and increases to blow out the logging road...Although the obligatory spark of romance lights up between Hadley and Riley (as the lady rancher is called), the two remain at cross purposes. The efforts of the townspeople to force the intruders to move on begin with denials of horses and supplies and escalate to the dynamiting of the logging road...Hadley, bracing himself for a fight, still insists on legal means to reach the lumber. But his hotheaded partner, Monty (Gilber Roland) favors a more direct approach...The fast friendship between the two loggers is strained to the breaking point when Monty decides to open the road by the method that closed it: dynamite... The film, set against some spectacular scenery, and climaxed by a forest fire, remains a routine and simple outdoor melodrama... Frankie Avalon's musical numbers are among the more ludicrous moments in an already sorry film... As Avalon's love interest, Alana Ladd is cute but makes no great impression as an actress...

More