| The Big Trees | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Felix E. Feist |
| Screenplay by | John Twist andJames R. Webb |
| Story by | Kenneth Earl |
| Produced by | Louis F. Edelman |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Bert Glennon |
| Edited by | Clarence Kolster |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | Warner Bros. |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Big Trees is a1952 American lumberjackWestern film starringKirk Douglas and directed byFelix E. Feist. It was Kirk Douglas's final film forWarner Brothers, a film he did for free in exchange for the studio agreeing to release him from hislong-term contract.[2]
The film has fallen into the public domain.[3][better source needed] Douglas plays a greedy timber baron who seeks to exploit thesequoia forest, while facing the protest of the Quaker colonists.
In 1900, lumberman Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas) greedily eyes the big redwood trees in the virgin region of northernCalifornia. The land is already settled by, among others, a religious group led by Elder Bixby (Charles Meredith) who have a religious relationship with the redwoods and refuse to log them, using smaller trees for lumber. Jim becomes infatuated with Bixby's daughter, Alicia (Eve Miller), though that does not change his plan to cheat the homesteaders. When Jim's right-hand man, Yukon Burns (Edgar Buchanan) finds out, he changes sides and leads the locals in resisting Jim. The locals combat Jim's loggers with a sympathetic judge with Jim fighting back by using Federal laws.
Elder Bixby is killed when a bigsequoia tree is chopped down by Jim's men and falls on his cabin. Jim's desperate attempt to rescue Alicia's father saves him from being convicted of murder. Meanwhile, timber rival Cleve Gregg (Harry Cording) appears on the scene, making it a three-way fight. Gregg and his partner Frenchy LeCroix (John Archer) try to assassinate Jim, but end up killing Yukon instead. Jim has a dramatic change of heart and leads the settlers in defeating Gregg and Frenchy. Afterwards, Jim marries Alicia and settles down.
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Students fromHumboldt State University played members of the Quaker congregation and members of its choir.[2]
The film was made with the cooperation of the Hammond and Carlotta Lumber companies,[2] and was shot at locations inHumboldt County, California.[4]
Footage from Warner Brothers' 1938 Technicolor filmValley of the Giants is used throughoutThe Big Trees.The Big Trees is not a precise remake, but shares useful plot points. The climactic explosion of a logjam makes use of the destruction of the dam inValley of the Giants. Costumes were designed to match the images in several scenes, notably when the red-shirted hero in each picture works his way along a train carrying huge cut trees in order to stop the caboose carrying his love interest from plunging into a gorge. The white-shirted villain survived his battle with the hero in the earlier. Alan Hale Jr. plays a lumberjack in this, wearing a very distinctive outfit—including a hat—like the one his father wears inValley of the Giants.The Big Trees uses the long shot fromValley of the Giants of Ox (Alan Hale Sr.) sliding down a cable to have “Tiny” accomplish the same feat in this picture.[citation needed]
The New York Times called it a "stormy and sometimes silly saga" based on a script "not terribly far removed from the Warners'Valley of the Giants"; its "plot and emoting seem to be as old as the giant redwoods with which they are concerned."[5]
In a 1986 interview withDavid Letterman, this was one of two movies Kirk told the audience that they could skip in his filmography. The other wasAlong the Great Divide.[citation needed]
