''Valley of the Giants'' is a 1938 American Technicolor

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, an ...

directed by William Keighley, written by Seton I. Miller and

Michael Fessier Michael Fessier (1905–1988) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He worked for Hollywood studios such as MGM and Universal Pictures. Later in his career he worked in television. He also wrote short stories and novels, two of which wer ...

, and starring Wayne Morris,

Claire Trevor Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...

, 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 Peter Bernhard Kyne (October 12, 1880 – November 25, 1957) was an American novelist who published between 1904 and 1940. He was born and died in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Many of his works were adapted into screenplays star ...

. The film was released by Warner Bros. on September 17, 1938.

Plot

Bill Cardigan ( Wayne Morris) owns a large portion of the California Redwoods. Howard Fallon ( Charles Bickford) along with Hendricks ( John Litel), Lee Roberts (

), Ed Morell ( Jack La Rue) and Fingers McCarthy ( Frank McHugh) 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

* Wayne Morris as Bill Cardigan *

as Lee Roberts * Frank McHugh as 'Fingers' McCarthy * Alan Hale Sr. as 'Ox' Smith * Donald Crisp as Andy Stone * Charles Bickford as Howard Fallon * Jack La Rue as Ed Morrell * John Litel as Hendricks *

Dick Purcell Richard Gerold Purcell Jr. (August 6, 1905 – April 10, 1944) was an American actor best known for playing Marvel Comics' Captain America in the 1943 film serial, co-starring with Lorna Gray and Lionel Atwill. Purcell also appeared in fil ...

as Creel * El Brendel as 'Fats' * Russel Simpson as McKenzie * Cy Kendall as Sheriff Grabber * Harry Cording as Greer * Wade Boteler as Joe Lorimer * Helen MacKellar as Mrs. Lorimer *

Addison Richards Addison Whittaker Richards, Jr. (October 20, 1902 – March 22, 1964) was an American actor of film and television. Richards appeared in more than three hundred films between 1933 and his death. Biography A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Richa ...

as Hewitt * Jerry Colonna as Saloon Singer

Location

The film was shot on locations in

Humboldt County, California Humboldt County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka. Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, California Micropolitan Statistica ...

Production

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. Footage from the film was used throughout Warner Brothers' 1952 picture ''

The Big Trees ''The Big Trees'' is a 1952 in film, 1952 lumberjack western film, 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 agreei ...

'', 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. Alan Hale Jr. (born Alan Hale MacKahan; (March 8, 1921 - January 2, 1990) 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 ...

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.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valley of the Giants 1938 adventure films 1938 films American adventure films Remakes of American films 1930s English-language films Films based on American novels Films directed by William Keighley Films scored by Adolph Deutsch Films set in forests Films about lumberjacks Warner Bros. films 1930s American films