The Timber Tramps

This dog was filmed in Juneau, Alaska. It struck me, at the time, as odd that such a collection of has beens would be cast in this loser. The cast resided on John Wayne's Yacht, The Wild Goose (as I recall its name), anchored in Gasteneau Channel, while filming. Claud Akins behaved just as disgracefully in town as his character did in the movie. I believe that the studio or producer used this project as some sort of tax dodge while simultaneously compensating the actors for past (almost) glories or just to throw a party and write it off. That approach to movie making may also explain the making of "Ishtar". I resided in Juneau at that time and saw the "preview" of this monstrosity at a local theater there. The processing of the film was so poor that the color palate changed drastically from reel to reel. By the way, Chuck Keen lived in Juneau and, over several years, made several unsuccessful attempts to set up tourist attractions there. He mostly tried to promote his image as a "talent" "connected" in the movie industry.

Claude Akins is a drunken, hurtful, abusive lumberjack who leads a pathetic, migratory life and socializes exclusively with miserable losers like himself. He's the hero (?) of this movie, which has the look of an el cheapo made-for-TV quickie. Hoyt Curtain, who did the music for dozens of Hanna Barbera cartoons, supplies the totally inappropriate background score. The cast includes such luminaries as Tab Hunter and Rosie Grier, but it's mostly about Claude Akins drinking, cutting down trees, getting into fights, and just generally being a disgusting slob. You'll cherish the scene in which Claude tells a hippie to get a haircut. No, really, you *will* cherish it.

Itinerant logger Claude Akins and buddy Leon Ames head up to Alaska to help Akins' first love, Eve Brent, fill a contract with partners Joseph Cotten and Cesar Romero, and to put some spine into Miss Brent's son, Mike Hagerty.

It's written, produced, shot and co-directed by Chuck Keen; more interestingly, it's co-directed by Tay Garnett, which helps to explain the wealth of old-time performers who show up. I'm not sure who was in charge of which sequences, but it's not shot for beauty, and the dialogue has too much of people saying things to other characters that they already know. On top of it, Ames has a voice-over commenting on almost every scene which is annoying and useless. In between it's strictly B-movie material, stretched out with incidents and sub-plots which would have benefited from a stronger man in the editing booth. With Tab Hunter, Stanley Clements, Patricia Medina -- her last movie -- Shug Fisher, Noble Chissell, Stubby Kaye, and Rosie Grier.

I'll start right off by stating that the idiot from Juneau who said this movie was a tax dodge obviously is a bitter person with some sort of ax to grind. In fact, the crew did NOT reside on John Waynes yacht in Juneau, while filming there, Mr. Wayne didn't bring his yacht to Juneau until several years later. I was a boy living in the logging camp where and when this movie was filmed, in fact, my father fell every tree you see falling in the movie, they did a fair job of keeping him out of sight and making it look as though Claude Akins was falling the trees. I was around the movie crew all that summer while they used the camp.In fact, in the scene where Claude tells the "hippy" to get a haircut, on the float plane dock, they had to shoo us out of sight of the cameras, as us kids were floating in the water, leisurely watching the filming. My family and friends found, with the exception of Eve Brent who was VERY standoffish, the entire cast and crew to be delightful people. And remember, we spent the entire summer with them, watching all of the filming. The scene where Leon Ames was operating the D-8 on the steep hillside was actually about 40' behind our little house. My routine that summer, was to get up every morning, eat breakfast, and run down to wherever they were filming, if it was in or around camp, or to jump in the pickups with them, if they were going out to the logging area for the day. These old time movie actors were real people, genuine, polite, courteous, friendly, warm. Rosie Greer taught us kids how to play touch football, football being unknown to us kids in a logging camp in S.E. Alaska...he was as light as feather on his feet for such a huge man! Many times after the days work/filming was done, the cast went salmon fishing with us, We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs together, they were completely down to earth, and never reminded us that they were from Hollywood, and we were just a bunch hick loggers and their offspring. I don't believe this film was ever intended to be more than what it was..a locally made story about a time and era that doesn't exist anymore, and if you take it as such, you wont be disappointed. It's as unpretentious as Chuck Keen himself was, and for me, takes me back to a time we'll never see again, but one I'll always feel privileged to have lived in.

An article in the Dec 19, 1977 issue of Box office magazine suggests that "The Timber Tramps" was not all that old at the time. There's no mention of Howco Intl. being a distributor, or former distributor. "Chuck D. Keen, founder of Alaska Films, has based his company in his hometown of Juneau, Alaska...the feature was made on a $500,000 budget....Keen already has another feature for release. 'Claws' also stars Leon Ames, who, Keen said, will be 'in all of my pictures until he decides to retire.'"

"All of the shooting on 'Claws' was done in Alaska. The film nows is in test runs in Montana. "The Timber Tramps" is scheduled for release in January and is due shortly for test runs in Little Rock, Ark. Both films are to be released by Arizona General, a relatively new distribution company formed three years ago. "

This issue of Box office has an ad for "Timber Tramps" on the cover, and the article confirms an association between Keen and John Wayne - they did a Vietnam

documentary together where Wayne served as a host/narrator. Did all those people want a vacation in Alaska? That's quite a cast in "The Timber Tramps."