Valley of the Giants

While this film is set among the Coastal Redwoods and isn't a western, the plot is pretty much what you'd see in thousands of B-westerns. After all, the most familiar plot in these Bs is the evil boss who wants to force everyone off their land. Here in "Valley of the Gods", the exact same situation occurs...though instead of being over grazing land or gold mines, the thief is trying to take the land for its bounty in redwood lumber.

When the story begins, Fallon (Charles Bickford) is having a meeting with his slimey cronies. It seems he has a scheme to steal the land from some redwoods loggers, as the wood sells for many times that of other types of lumber. He also enlists the aid of Lee (Claire Trevor) to accompany him and set up her gambling joint in the Northern California forrests.

Most of the land Fallon intends to steal is owned by Bill Cardigan (Wayne Morris) and at first Cardigan believes the law will protect him and the other loggers. However, it's obvious Fallon is willing to bribe his way to the ownership of everything...and eventually this means open warfare between them.

If any of this seems familiar apart from the 108,390,284 westerns with this theme, "Valley of the Giants" was also made and remade many times and portions of the movie were even spliced into other films. Frankly, if you've seen one of them, there isn't a lot of need to see the others.

So is this any good? Yes, though as I've said already VERY familiar. The actors are generally good (though Morris isn't as tough as some other actors might have been in this role), the action and stunts, pretty amazing. Worth seeing...but far from a must-see.

While an undistinguished piece of filmmaking, "Valley of the Giants" dovetails nicely with Warner Bros.' often cited theme of Resistance to Tyranny and Struggle for Justice, so often seen in films as diverse as "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang," "The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Life of Emile Zola" and "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," the unusual subject here being ecological devastation (also visited the year before in Warners' first all-three-strip Technicolor feature, "Gold is Where You Find It.").

Interestingly, fourteen years later, when the studio remade the story as "The Big Trees," the original film's villain, Fallon ("Steve Fallon" in "Valley of the Giants." "Jim Fallon" in "The Big Trees") became the protagonist, tailored for the talents of Kirk Douglas, whose peerless aptitude for essaying misguided heels was already well established by the early 1950's.

It should also be noted that character actor Harry Cording, a mainstay at Warner Bros. in the 1930's and '40's, appears in both versions. The Hale family are also represented in both films: Warners contact player Alan Hale ("Ox Smith") appears in "Valley of the Giants," while his son, Alan, jr plays "Tiny" in "The Big Trees."

This colorful western is a terrific tribute to the California forests, as also was, but at a lesser scale, Jospeh Kane's TIMBERJACK, starring Sterling Hayden. But this Warner Bros picture is of course, I repeat, far far better. We can appreciate here the quality, the trademark of Warner studios, despite the absence of the likes of Errol Flynn or Ann Sheridan. But the settings, scenery, and the overall atmospere compensate totally the lesser cast. And the action scenes are overwhelming, jaw dropping, even for today's audiences. Don't forget it was made in the late thirties. If you crave to those magical sequioas in Redwoods National park, don't miss this movie.

SO many big names in this one -- 28 year old Claire Trevor, Frank McHugh, Charles Bickford, and the amazing Alan Hale. Really interesting (to me) that they were realizing how important the redwoods were, back in 1902, or at least making a film about it in 1938. Not many people cared about conservation and saving resources back then. The actual Redwood National Park wasn't actually established until 1968! According to wikipedia, they first tried to establish a park in 1911, but it didn't take. If you read the opening title cards, you'll know the plot... all about the timber barons trying to cut down the redwoods, many of which were on private property, or on homesteaded land. And all in glorious Technicolor, a year before Wizard of Oz. That explains why everyone's hair is dyed henna red... so it'll show up nice and red! and the fun Jerry Colonna singing songs. Wayne Morris is "Cardigan", the big land-owner here, trying to protect his land from the cutters. Morris was a decorated war hero, but died quite young at 45. It's a pretty good film. With some history thrown in.

The plot is interesting, the actors are sympathetic and they look good on the screen. There are fights, shootings, shots of beautiful nature. I think this movie is worth reaching for. Best Western of 1938 together with "Gold is where you find it" , ,,Of Human Hearts" and "The Texans". The film was made in Technicolor and visually looks very nice for the year of production. I think that should have higher average.