Valley of the Giants | |
---|---|
Directed by | William Keighley |
Screenplay by | Seton I. Miller Michael Fessier |
Based on | The Valley of the Giants 1918 novel by Peter B. Kyne |
Produced by | Louis F. Edelman |
Starring | Wayne Morris Claire Trevor Frank McHugh Alan Hale Sr. Donald Crisp Charles Bickford |
Cinematography | Sol Polito |
Edited by | Jack Killifer |
Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Production company | Warner Bros. |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
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]
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.
The film was shot on locations in Humboldt County, California. [4]
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]
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American epic swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and written by Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller.
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in Min and Bill (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in Grand Hotel (1932), as the pirate Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934), as Pancho Villa in Viva Villa! (1934), and his title role in The Champ (1931), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Beery appeared in some 250 films during a 36-year career. His contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stipulated in 1932 that he would be paid $1 more than any other contract player at the studio. This made Beery the highest-paid film actor in the world during the early 1930s. He was the brother of actor Noah Beery and uncle of actor Noah Beery Jr.
Alan Hale Jr. was an American actor and restaurateur. He was the son of actor Alan Hale Sr. His television career spanned four decades, but he was best known for his secondary lead role as Captain Jonas Grumby, better known as The Skipper, on the 1960s CBS comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964–1967), a role he reprised in three Gilligan's Island television films and two spin-off cartoon series.
Alan Hale Sr. was an American actor and director. He is best remembered for his many character roles, in particular as a frequent sidekick of Errol Flynn, as well as films supporting Lon Chaney, Wallace Beery, Douglas Fairbanks, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Ronald Reagan. Hale was usually billed as Alan Hale and his career in film lasted 40 years. His son, Alan Hale Jr., also became an actor and remains most famous for playing "the Skipper" on the television series Gilligan's Island.
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, for a time also entitled Elizabeth the Queen, is a 1939 American historical romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland. Based on the play Elizabeth the Queen by Maxwell Anderson—which had a successful run on Broadway with Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt in the lead roles—the film fictionalizes the historical relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. The screenplay was written by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas MacKenzie.
Charles Ambrose Bickford was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Song of Bernadette (1943), The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and Johnny Belinda (1948). His other roles include Whirlpool (1950), A Star Is Born (1954) and The Big Country (1958).
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Arthur Davis, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.
The Big Trees is a 1952 American lumberjack Western film starring Kirk Douglas and directed by Felix E. Feist. It was Kirk Douglas's final film for Warner Brothers, a film he did for free in exchange for the studio agreeing to release him from his long-term contract.
Rogues of Sherwood Forest is a 1950 Technicolor adventure film from Columbia Pictures, directed by Gordon Douglas, and starring John Derek as Robin, the Earl of Huntingdon, the son of Robin Hood, Diana Lynn as Lady Marianne, and Alan Hale, Sr. in his third Robin Hood film role as Little John during a 28-year period; he had played the part opposite Douglas Fairbanks in 1922 and Errol Flynn in 1938, one of the longest periods over which a film actor played the same major character. It was also Hale's final film before his death. Rogues of Sherwood Forest was written by George Bruce and Ralph Gilbert Bettison. The supporting cast features George Macready as King John, Billy House as Friar Tuck and John Dehner in an early appearance as Sir Baldric, billed fourteenth in the cast list.
Paris is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film, featuring Irène Bordoni. It was filmed with Technicolor sequences: four of the film's ten reels were originally photographed in Technicolor.
William Jackson Keighley was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 American adventure romance western film based on the 1908 novel of the same name. It was the second full-length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation. The picture was directed by Henry Hathaway starring Fred MacMurray, Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda. Much of it was shot at Big Bear Lake in southern California. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine was the fourth feature film adaptation of John Fox Jr.'s 1908 novel, including 1916 and 1923 silent versions. As with the novel, the film makes extensive use of Appalachian English in the dialogue.
Guns of the Timberland is a 1960 American Technicolor lumberjack Western film directed by Robert D. Webb and starring Alan Ladd, Jeanne Crain, Gilbert Roland and Frankie Avalon. It is based on the 1955 book Guns of the Timberlands by Louis L'Amour.
Gold is Where You Find It is a 1938 American Western Technicolor film that gives a fictionalized account of a true event — an ecological disaster whose effects are still felt in California today. Directed by Michael Curtiz and starring George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, and Claude Rains, with a screenplay by Warren Duff and Robert Buckner based on a story by Clements Ripley, the film is set 30 years after the first California Gold Rush, when hydraulic mining sends floods of muddy sludge into the Sacramento Valley, destroying crops and homes, ruining land and water sources and killing people caught in their path. The film highlights the conflict between the mining companies and the wheat farmers by adding a romance between a mining engineer and the daughter of a prominent farmer. She is herself dedicated to the idea that fruit can be raised in the valley. This Technicolor feature film was released on February 12, 1938, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
All Mine to Give is a 1957 Technicolor melodrama film directed by Allen Reisner and starring Glynis Johns, Cameron Mitchell, and Rex Thompson. When first one parent, then the other, dies, their six children have to look after themselves in the Wisconsin of the mid-19th century.
Valley of the Giants is a 1919 American silent romantic drama film directed by James Cruze and starring Wallace Reid and Grace Darmond. Based on Peter B. Kyne's popular 1918 novel of the same name, the film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed through Paramount Pictures.
The Valley of the Giants is a 1927 silent film adventure directed by Charles Brabin and starring Milton Sills and Doris Kenyon who were real-life man and wife. It was based on a novel by Peter B. Kyne. First National produced and distributed the film having gained the screen rights to the story from Famous Players–Lasky and Paramount. Paramount had made a version of the novel in 1919 with Wallace Reid, and it would again be filmed in 1938. A copy of this film survives at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. It is also listed as existing in an incomplete print at the Library of Congress. A 16mm copy is housed at the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.
Comet over Broadway is a 1938 American drama film starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Crisp. It was produced and released by Warner Brothers. John Farrow stepped in as director when Busby Berkeley became ill, but Farrow was uncredited on the film.
The Vampire's Ghost is a 1945 American horror film directed by Lesley Selander, written by Leigh Brackett and John K. Butler, and starring John Abbott, Charles Gordon, Peggy Stewart, Grant Withers, Emmett Vogan and Adele Mara. The film was released on May 21, 1945, by Republic Pictures.
God's Country and the Woman is a 1937 American Technicolor lumberjack drama film directed by William Keighley and written by Norman Reilly Raine. The film stars George Brent, Beverly Roberts, Barton MacLane, Robert Barrat, Alan Hale, Sr. and Joe King. The film is based on a 1915 novel by James Oliver Curwood entitled God's Country and the Woman and was released by Warner Bros. on January 16, 1937.