It is a performances centric movie

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Moderately enjoyable, this woodsy adventure features tough, no nonsense performances by Sterling Hayden and David Brian, a sentimental one by vet Adolph Menjou and a Hruba-licious performance by Vera Ralston, the Norma Shearer of Republic studios, aka married to the boss. She's simple window dressing in this familiar story of the rivalry between two men in the logging industry, one good (Hayden) and one bad (Brian). He will stop at nothing to keep Hayden out of his way, including sabotage and murder. Menjou, as Ralston's father, tries to keep the peace and right a wrong, and pays dearly. The war is on, and there will be no tree standing if Brian has his way.After a pretty theme song over the credits, Ralston gets to sing (dubbed!) two campy songs and Hoagy Carmichael, the town's only piano AND accordion player, gets a novelty number as well. Ralston gets better photography this time than she has in some of the other films I've seen her in, and she's not bad, but fortunately, the focus is on the men. Hayden and Brian are both very good, and Carmichael and Chill Wills provide some minor laughs. Menjou is given some really melodramatic dialog but instills it with his customary class. Good color scenes of how the industry works helps this out. But the logging industry has been dealt with on screen in better ways, so this just remains formula.

I remember watching this movie back in '55 in Great Falls, Montana. It was a fun flick. Sterling Hayden did his usual Sterling Hayden performance. It was not Godfather worthy, but acceptable. The scenery was familiar to us, being Montanans. I actually did some lumber jacking in my college years. It is heavy work. After the movie, we stopped at a soda fountain. I stuffed the jukebox with a couple of quarters and punched in the song, "Timberjack". It was set to play twelve times. (If you put in a quarter instead of a nickle, you got six plays.) After the fourth play, the proprietor came over and unplugged the jukebox. We laughed our way out of the place.

When he hears of his father's death, Tim Chipman returns to the family logging territory and company to help run it. However he walks back into a losing battle where rival logger Croft Brunner bought up the railway line and refused Chipman to remove his logs on it, forcing them to be moved the longest and costliest way; Brunner then followed this with an offer to buy Chipman out. When Chipman throws the offer back in Brunner's face he ends up dead in suspicious circumstances. With Tim taking over, Brunner hopes to get his offer accepted but Chipman Junior has no intention of giving the company to a man he suspects had a hand in his father's death.From the opening credits alone (a hilariously corny song with some real gems in the lyrics - "hurry back, hurry back, timberjack") my hopes were not high but I decided, in the name of continuing to put off more important things, to watch it anyway. The film quickly moves into the standard patter for this type of film by running a series of songs, fistfights, romance and melodrama in a cycle that builds to an ending that more or less mixes them all together. This is hardly anything new and is typical of the "entertainment for all" ethos of similar films and it doesn't really do any aspect of it well enough to stand out or make any sort of lasting impression. The plot has an enjoyable tension between Chipman and Brunner and also produces some unspectacular but fun fight scenes; the romance aspect is badly done and reduces parts of the film to the level of poor melodrama. The songs are perky and lively but none of them stuck in my mind longer than the numbers themselves. This mix did enough to entertain me on a basic level, which was all I was really expecting it to do. The most interesting parts for me were the sections that showed the loggers in action – either up the top of a massive tree or floating logs down a river; it was fascinating to see it being done although I wouldn't watch the whole film again for that reason.The cast is mixed but are part of the all-round entertainment value of the film. Hayden is a good screen presence in even the most average films and so he is here – just sticking out his chest and jaw and letting them do the work. Brian is a reasonable foil and, despite having less of a presence gives almost as good as he gets. Ralston is a bit bland but is good in the musical numbers; Carmichael provides a small bit of comic relief. Noir fans will probably be as surprised as I was to find Elisha Cook Jr in a tiny role hidden behind a wisp of whiskers! Overall this is a fairly average film that doesn't really excel at anything but does the usual mix of action, melodrama and music together to produce an enjoyable film. It isn't anything special but it has just about enough going for it to be a watchable 90 minutes if you are in an undemanding mood.

Unusual today, as a logger is the good guy! (Of course, so is the villain.) Some good footage of Shay-powered logging trains in operation; log rafts, and the like. The story and acting style are dated, but there's a nice supporting performance by Hoagy Carmichael and a great character by Adolphe Menjou.