The Forest Commandos

The Forest Commandos (1946)

** (out of 4)

This Warner short was apparently released in Technicolor but all of those prints have been lost or destroyed so all that remains is a B&W version, which is what recently aired on Turner Classic Movies. At just over 20-minutes, this documentary takes a look at the Ontario group of forest rangers as well as the bush pilots that help them whenever fires break out. What we basically get is a tour of the forest area as well as a detailed description of what these men do each and everyday. We go on an inspection with the ranger as he informs a camper that he can't have a fire going in the woods and shows him a safer way to have one. Once a fire does break out we get to see the bush pilots who take off to try and keep it under control. This two-reeler might offer quite a bit of information but I found the majority of it to be rather bland. There are way too many moments where we see the happy leader walking around the woods showing us the "right" way to do things and it was just a tad bit too preachy for me. I also think it hurts that we're constantly cutting back and forth between actual footage shot for this and stock footage. It makes the film seem quite uneven going between the two so much. I'm sure fans who have to watch every short out there (like me) should get some mild entertainment from it but others should just avoid.

This Warner Brothers short subject about Canadian bush pilots and their work in safeguarding Canada's forests -- mostly against the spruce bud worm and fire -- has a narration voiced by Knox Manning is a rather over-the-top manner.

It will remind the viewer of a lot of these travelogues of the James Fitzpatrick series from MGM, although the black and white photography and the variability of the shots will soon strike the audience. Clearly, its clips are sourced from a variety of sources, some carefully composed -- particularly the portrait shots, which usually show their subjects gazing nobly past the upper left corner of the frame -- and others showing that they are multi-generational copies by their overly contrasted appearance.

Still, it's certainly informative and a reasonable example of a robust and long-lasting genre.