The Big Trees

4/6/2018

Old-fashioned atypical Western laden by complex legal/financial talk, but has several highlights 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 ge

6/2/2026

I wonder if this might have looked better in black and white? In colour it's a rather sterile and over-scripted, join-the-dots, take on the American pioneering story that never quite gets out of second gear. With the economy booming back East, there is an insatiable demand for lumber and so the government has pretty much declared open season on the nation's forests. "Fallon" (Kirk Douglas) sees a chance to make a fortune and so sets off to lop down some giant redwood trees. They are growing on land that has already been settled by some Quakers and they want him to leave well alone. Initially unmoved, he takes a bit of a shine to "Alicia" (Eve Miller) who just happens to be the daughter of their elder (Charles Meredith) and so he does a bit of the poacher turned gamekeeper. That epiphany pu