The Big Trees
About The Big Trees
In 1900, lumberman Jim Fallon arrives in northern California to take redwoods under a new federal law. A religious colony led by Elder Bixby has homesteaded the groves and will not sell. Fallon courts Bixby's daughter Alicia while he works the claim. His partner Yukon Burns learns the scheme and sides with the settlers. A felled sequoia crushes Bixby's cabin. Fallon pulls him out, but Bixby dies, and Fallon is cleared of murder. Rival loggers Cleve Gregg and Frenchy LeCroix try to kill Fallon and kill Yukon instead. Fallon and the settlers beat them. He marries Alicia.
Cast & crew
More about The Big Trees
Felix E. Feist directed. Louis F. Edelman produced. John Twist and James R. Webb wrote the screenplay from a story by Kenneth Earl. Bert Glennon photographed it in Technicolor. Heinz Roemheld wrote the music. New York opened it on February 5, 1952. Eureka, California, held a premiere on February 16 with a parade and a woodchopping contest. Patrice Wymore, Eve Miller, and Edgar Buchanan attended.
Themes
Background
The story is set in 1900, when federal land law and private timber claims were colliding with homesteaders in the northern California redwoods.
Making
Douglas used the picture as the price of leaving Warner Bros. The company still shot it as a Technicolor lumber Western in Humboldt County, with the redwood stands as the location.
Reviews
A. H. Weiler, in The New York Times of February 6, 1952, called it 'a stormy and sometimes silly saga of lumber operators' and 'a cliché-ridden tale in which religious faith and fistic fireworks are mixed with little effect.'
Look
Bert Glennon shot it in Technicolor in Humboldt County, using the standing redwoods as the groves Fallon wants to cut.
Music
Heinz Roemheld composed the score.
Preservation
The copyright lapsed in 1980, and the film is in the public domain in the United States. A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Kirk Douglas took no salary. Warner Bros. released him from his contract in return, and this was his last film for the studio.
- Eve Miller plays Alicia Chadwick. Charles Meredith is Elder Bixby. Edgar Buchanan is Yukon Burns. Harry Cording is Cleve Gregg. John Archer is Frenchy LeCroix.
- Patrice Wymore plays Daisy Fisher, Alan Hale Jr. plays Tiny, and Ellen Corby plays Sister Blackburn.
- The copyright was not renewed, and the film entered the public domain in 1980.
- The Eureka premiere added a lumberjack contest to the usual first-night program.
Scenes
- Fallon looks over the sequoias the colony will not sell.
- A cut tree falls through Elder Bixby's cabin.
- Gregg and Frenchy kill Yukon while hunting Fallon.
- The settlers and Fallon stop the rival crew.
Also available
- Internet Archive (big_trees)