southfar

Though only 68 minutes, Spoilers of the Forest, a modern western that replaces the horse with the jeep, has a lot to recommend it. Its basic plot involves the preservation of Montana forests from an unscrupulous logging firm headed by the actor who played Perry Mason's Inspector Tragg, Ray Collins. Hillary Brooke plays Collin's wife in what at first might appear to be an unlikely pairing, but they play well together as the villains. Rod Cameron works for them as their logging foreman. Collins and Cameron stumble upon a large, 50 tract parcel of Montana forest owned by Vera Ralston and her stepfather and his family. They want to log only one of the 50 tracts for environmental reasons, but Collins and Cameron want to log all 50 tracts and set about with a plan to trick Ralston into betraying her stepfather. Cameron is to romance Ralston, get her used to expensive things, so that she will agree to further logging. In wide screen Naturama and Trucolor, the film is beautifully shot by Jack Marta, director of photography. Directed by Republic's famous house director, Joseph Kane, Kane keeps the action moving right along. This film received three stars from the New York News when it was reviewed in 1957 and was featured as the "A" movie on many double bills. Finally, this is one of a handful of Ralston films in which she performs very well. I am surprised that the film hasn't been remade in the almost 50 years since Kane first produced and directed it.

This is an important movie in regards to the history of Republic Pictures. Starting in 1957, Republic technically didn't make films anymore, but released or distributed films made by independent companies. But only one of these independent companies was made up of personnel from the original Republic Pictures, Ventura Productions. The Man Who Died Twice was the last film of seven or eight made by Ventura (December 1957), released by Republic in June 1958. So technically, this was the last real Republic Production, with Republic regulars at the helm: Joseph Kane, director, Jack Marta, director of photography, Bob Mark, makeup supervision, Rudy Ralston, Producer, etc. The two top stars were Republic stalwarts, Rod Cameron and Vera Ralston. It has a good story, is paced well, as usual, by Kane (named by Gene Autry to be the John Ford of B movies) and photographed beautifully in black and white and Republic's wide screen process, Naturama, by Marta. It is Vera Ralston's last film and Kane's last film for Republic. He moved on to directing westerns on TV and then in the mid 60s did some directing and 2nd unit directing for films. Republic collapsed in mid 1959, more valuable for the land its studio was sitting on and for its film library. Do your best to try and see the 70 minute film. It has a great supporting cast headed by Mike Mazurki (who appeared with Vera and John Wayne in 1945's Dakota from Republic, also directed by Kane).