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Valley of the Giants (film)

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Valley of the Giants
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWilliam Keighley
Screenplay bySeton I. Miller
Michael Fessier
Based onThe Valley of the Giants
1918 novel
by Peter B. Kyne
Produced byLouis F. Edelman
StarringWayne Morris
Claire Trevor
Frank McHugh
Alan Hale Sr.
Donald Crisp
Charles Bickford
CinematographySol Polito
Edited byJack Killifer
Music byAdolph Deutsch
Production
company
Warner Bros.
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • September 17, 1938 (1938-09-17)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Valley of the Giants is a 1938 American Technicolor adventure film/lumberjack Western directed by William Keighley, written by Seton I. Miller and Michael Fessier, and starring Wayne Morris, Claire Trevor, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale Sr., Donald Crisp, and Charles Bickford. It is based on the novel The Valley of the Giants by Peter B. Kyne.[1] The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 17, 1938.[2][3]

Plot

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Bill Cardigan owns a large portion of the California Redwoods. Howard Fallon along with Hendricks, Lee Roberts, Ed Morell, and Fingers McCarthy go to California and try to procure Bill's land. Howard finds out about Bill's large bank debt, and now has a way to get ownership of the forest. Accidentally the claims Howard had towards the land get destroyed in a fire giving Bill a chance to reclaim ownership. Bill must get his lumber cut and shipped within six weeks. Howard attempts to stop Bill by destroying the railroad, damming the river and locking him and Lee in the caboose of the train and sending it towards the destroyed track. Fallon gets captured and surrenders to Bill, giving him back his land.

Cast

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Location

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The film was shot on locations in Humboldt County, California.[4]

Production

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This is the third film version of the 1919 novel with a 1919 film directed by James Cruze and a 1927 remake directed by Charles Brabin. The original film was lost up until 2010 when the film was presented to the Library of Congress by the Russian film archive Gosfilmofond.[5]

Footage from the film was used throughout Warner Brothers' 1952 picture The Big Trees, also in Technicolor. The later film is not a precise remake, but shares useful plot points. The climactic explosion of a logjam makes use of the destruction of the bridge in Valley of the Giants. Costumes were designed to match the images in several scenes, notably when the red-shirted hero in each picture works his way along a train carrying huge cut trees in order to stop the caboose carrying his love interest from plunging into a gorge. The white shirted villain survived his battle with the hero in this picture.  Alan Hale Jr. plays a lumberjack in the later film, wearing a very distinctive outfit—including a hat—like the one his father wears in this picture. The Big Trees uses the long shot from Valley of the Giants of Ox (Alan Hale Sr.) sliding down a cable to have the character played by his son accomplish the same feat.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Keighley, William (1938). The Valley of the Giants. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc .New York Film.
  2. ^ "Valley of the Giants". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
  3. ^ Hal Erickson. "Valley of the Giants (1938) - William Keighley | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie. Retrieved 2016-05-01.
  4. ^ Hesseltine, Cassandra. "Complete Filmography of Humboldt County". Humboldt Del Norte Film Commission. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  5. ^ Gladysz, Thomas (October 26, 2010). "Once lost Northern California film now found". AXS Entertainment.
  6. ^ "The Big Trees". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 2022-08-03.
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