GUNS OF THE TIMBERLAND (STAMPEDE) (director: Robert D. Webb; screenwriters: Aaron Spelling/Joseph Petracca/from the novel by Louis L’Amour; cinematographer: John F. Seitz ; editor: Tom McAdoo; music: David Buttolph; cast: Alan Ladd (Jim Hadley), Jeanne Crain (Laura Riley), Gilbert Roland (Monty Welker), Frankie Avalon (Bert Harvey), Noah Beery (Blackie), Verna Felton (Aunt Sarah), Alana Ladd (Jane Peterson), Lyle Bettger (Clay Bell); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Aaron Spelling; Warner Archives; 1960)
“Routine logger versus rancher story.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Routine logger versus rancher story. Robert D. Webb (“The Cape Town Affair”/”Love Me Tender”/”The Proud Ones”) directs. Writers Aaron Spelling and Joseph Petracca adapt it from a novel bt Louis L’Amour.
Logging partners Alan Ladd and Gilbert Roland search for timber in the Northwest frontier town of Deep Wells. The locals greet them with hostility. The ranchers urge them not to cut down their trees, but they do so anyway despite the dangers to the land. Both sides use dynamite on each other. When horse-trader rancher beauty Jeanne Crain’s ward Frankie Avalon is almost killed by the loggers, Ladd relents. But the obstinate Roland refuses. This causes a split in the partnership. Roland eventually gets killed and Ladd gets engaged to Crain, and they leave town. It ends with a forest fire.
It’s a weak film, but teen idol Frankie sings a few tunes such as “Gee Whiz Willikers Golly Gee,” “The Faithful Kind” (Mack David, Jerry Livingston), “Cry Timber” (Sy Miller).
REVIEWED ON 3/29/2016 GRADE: B-
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