Spikeopath I just can't sell this movie folks, I thought it was dreadful. I'm someone who is normally content with both director {Joseph Kane} and star {Sterling Hayden} but here they are mired in weak plotting, bad acting and even worse accents. It also purports to be something of a mystery, which is daft since there isn't one!. Flimsy fights come and go, as do cheese laden songs, while the dialogue is as stilted {read from auto-cue it looks like} as can be. Republic Pictures do have many a fine B movie in the locker, but this isn't worthy of Z movie status.The plot sees Hayden as Tim Chipman, who returns home to find his father, owner of the family logging company, has been murdered. With money owed and a shifty rival in the offering, can Tim solve the mystery, fight off the baddies and once again move logs? Adapted from a novel written by Dan Cushman, of which I haven't read, I honestly don't know if the source material was any good to begin with? But this just doesn't work, either as an interesting story or as a competently executed one. Some decent train sequences catch the eye, and the location work at Glacier National Park is pleasing, if not helped by the less than standard Trucolor print. But really it's not even a time filler of a picture. 3/10

ianlouisiana Well,she certainly worked hard and that's a fact.Through most of the movie she appears to be looking desperately at the other actors as if for their approval,like a puppy having mastered a new trick.She gyrates around the saloon,sings in a sub - sub Dietrich fashion a song or two that brings new meaning to the word "banal" before killing the bad guy with a backshot a sniper would have been proud of. In a logging camp full of exotic Europeans with names like Ole and a positive cornucopia of lousy accents Sterling Hayden searches for the truth about his father's death.Nearly as wooden as the logs he wants to send downriver,Mr Hayden is tall and fair and freckled.Unlike Miss Ralston he doesn't seem to care whether anybody likes him or not. Adolph Menjou is rather sweet as Miss Ralston's father who is killed by the bad guy with a single punch to the chin.Perhaps not surprisingly his hat comes off and is later found by Miss Ralston in the bad guy's office.Thus exciting her suspicions.Steady now.... There's plenty of treetop action - enough to set the Health and Safety boys running for the phone - and a lot of manly fistfights. Hoagy Carmichael does his usual piano - playing saloon bar philosopher part and sings a love song to a dog.Go figure. Not so much a negative experience,more a "Oh,is that it?" kind of movie. Just when you think it can't go on for much longer - it doesn't.For connoisseurs of the slightly camp only.

bohica-clm The gear engine and operation of the log train make this movie a must see and have. It provides an examples of life and operations methods of a small logging operation and the underhanded means used to gain control of the RR and timber. The train operations couple the story line and characters. It is also interesting to see that even the hired thugs have some ethics.

grizz2 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.