Sick Product of a Sick System

Beautiful, moving film.

Admirable film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The same year Kirk Douglas made the classic masterpiece The Bad and the Beautiful, he also made the low-budget, forgotten movie The Big Trees. He took no salary for the film as a way to get out of his Warner Brothers contract, and since he also admitted that it wasn't a good movie, I don't feel bad for criticizing it. You know I'm a Kirk Douglas fan, so if there are a handful of his movies I don't care for, I'm sure you-and he-will forgive me.Kirk plays a lumberman who's trying to get his hands on some potentially lucrative California redwoods. The Northern Californian town wants him to leave their trees alone, but he values money over heritage and nature-until he gets interested in Eve Miller, one of the vocal local girls. Since he's already involved with Patrice Wymore, he's got more than just a fight for the trees on his hands!The Big Trees reminded me of Tulsa, a movie starring Susan Hayward that pins greed against nature. Both films aren't very good quality and have pretty predictable stories, with little disasters thrown in to keep audiences interested, or awake. But, unless you're die-hard fans of the stars and insist on seeing every single one of their movies, there's no reason to sit through them. They typify the "old movies" people who don't like old movies make fun of. At least in The Big Trees, you get to see Kirk Douglas doing some cool stunts, as he's been known to do. Still, you're better off with Lonely Are the Brave.

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.

One of 3 rather unconventional westerns that Kirk Douglas starred in the '51-52 period, the others being: "Along the Great Divide", and "The Big Sky". All 3 are among my favorite westerns, especially this one. Kirk has a great time playing a brazen egomaniacal tightwad Wisconsin lumber baron(Jim Fallon), preparing to move his operation to the newly opened giant redwoods of northern CA. This was a historical trend around 1890-1910, as the most desirable trees in the Great Lakes region had mostly been cut. There seems to be confusion by some reviewers whether giant sequoias or redwoods are involved. This is not helped by the claim by one of the actors that some of these trees are near 4000 years old. That is only true of sequoias, not the featured redwoods! This was a remake of the 1938 Warner's "Valley of the Giants": also shot in Technicolor: a rare luxury at that timeBig Jim Fallon is a charismatic heel, who always seems to be behind in paying his workers, while looking to maximize his near term profits. He offers them a percentage of profits, instead of wages, if they will accompany him to CA. Most sign on. Jim has each sign a claim for a parcel of prime redwood forest, partially occupied by a religious colony who are self-appointed guardians of the biggest oldest trees. Big Jim tries to get friendly with these folks, partially through his folksy charismatic side-kick: Yukon(Edgar Buchanan). He is soon smitten by Alicia, daughter of the colony leader, but is still determined to cut down the biggest trees, by utilizing a new federal law that allows newcomers to appropriate these lands if the present inhabitants don't pay a fee. His bullying tactics cause his buddy Yukon to switch sides, while two of his other partners decide to try to arrange his death.. After Alicia's father and Yukon are accidentally killed by his renegade partners, Fallon is transformed and aids the religious colony, while his former buddies try to stop them from getting their logs to market. In the end, Fallon joins the religious colony and marries Alicia: a conversion nearly as astonishing as that in "3 Godfathers".Edgar Buchanan, as Yukon, and Eve Miller, as Alicia, are really the heart and soul of this yarn. Yukon, as a reformed charismatic gold prospector, who is seduced by the sincerity of the religious cult in their mission to save the biggest trees, and Eve, as a possible love interest, in their separate ways, eventually manage to transform Fallon. Unfortunately, the formulistic script required that Yukon die a martyr to make room for Alicia as Fallon's new best friend.(A similar substitution is evident in "The Far Country", for example).As was the case in many westerns, the lead male gets involved with two marriageable women: one wholesome and the other shady, if flamboyant. Here, Patrice Wymore plays Fallon's long time glamorous shady lady. Eventually, she has to compete with Alicia's wholesome image, and decides to vacate. In the Randolph Scott western "The Man Behind the Gun", Patrice played the winning wholesome gal, while Lina Romay was the losing flamboyant shady lady. Patrice was a striking beauty as showcased in this film, and an excellent underrated actress, with singing and dancing talents, as exhibited in the one number she is given in this film. No wonder Errol Flynn chose her as his last wife. Unfortunately, she caught him during his declining years, with increasing reliance on drugs and alcohol. Also, unfortunately, he would give her a daughter with even greater susceptibility to drug and alcohol addiction, resulting in her early death.Eve Miller, as Alicia, also was perfectly cast, as a wholesome, level -headed, OK-looking woman, though hardly a striking beauty in Patrice's class. Unfortunately, Eve evidently had problems in her real romantic life, and never became a major actress. She never married, and nearly succeeded in a suicide attempt after her suitor wanted to delay marriage. She would succeed in a later suicide attempt. Although major lumber operations did often move from the Great Lakes region to the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the century, the giant redwoods were no longer a virgin resource, as implied in this film. Disappointed CA gold seekers often became lumberjacks in these forests, so that much had been logged by the turn of the century. However, the legal shenanigans over ownership of these forests had some historical reality.Buchanan has one of his more sympathetic and visible roles. Too often he played an ineffective drunkard, cowardly lawman or political blowhard. Perfect as an experienced common sense-dispensing sourdough. Before becoming an actor, he had a career as a dentist!Veteran character actor Roy Roberts had his work cut out for him as Judge Crenshaw, who tried to sort out the snarled land claims and keep the peace between the lumber interests and the religious colony.

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