samgrass-3 Review of Timber Stampede

Timber Stampede (1939)

O'Brien, Wills and Reynolds Rise Above The Material

[6/10 · 1 August 2012]

George O'Brien stars as Scott Baylor, a cattleman tending his herd in the rich timberlands. (This is certainly one on me. I thought cattlemen raised their herds on the prairie, not in the woods.) Con men Jay Jones (Poverty Row stalwart Guy Usher) and Foss Dunlap (Morgan Wallace) are plotting to strip the town of Wagon Wheel (Another great name!) of the timberland by promising to build a railroad, but in reality they're stripping the land of its trees. In tow with the baddies is reporter Anne Carr (Marjorie Reynolds), whom they duped into glorifying their efforts to "further the progress of the West." When Scott's Uncle Henry (Earl Dwire), who owns the town's newspaper, "The Wagon Wheel Clarion," (Must reading in Wagon Wheel.) publishes articles accusing the railroad of legalized larceny, Jones and Dunlap buy the paper out from under him and install Carr as Editor-In-Chief so she can write flattering articles about the progress the railroad is making. In addition, Jones and Dunlap take over the local saloon and hang a sign out front reading "Cowboys Not Welcome." It doesn't get any more obvious than that. Jones is also paying drifters and his loggers to claim additional acres of land under the Homestead Act and then sign their claims over to him. When the Sheriff Lyman (Bob Burns) investigates, Jones's hired gun Matt Chaflin (Robert Fiske) murders him and then is appointed sheriff by Jones. Anne, for her part, refuses to believe any of Scott's accusations, so he and sidekick Whopper Hatch (Chill Wills) pose as potential homesteaders and snap a photo of Jones paying the drifters. Showing the evidence to Anne, she joins them, and with the help of Uncle Henry, she publishes an edition of the Clarion with the photo and accompanying article exposing the fraud. Chaflin forms a posse to arrest Scott for the murder of Sheriff Lyman, and Scott holds them off at the newspaper office while Whopper rides for help among the other cattlemen. They arrive in time to save Scott's bacon, and Scott outduels Chaflin as well. The town and the forest are saved, and Jones and Dunlap are carted off to the hoosegow. But as Whopper notes, Scott is also going to serve a life sentence, but with Anne. While the plot has the usual holes one would expect in a B movie, the acting is uniformly good and Reynolds stands out as the most beautiful of O'Brien's leading ladies. It was only a matter of time until she would get her big breakthrough. Watch for Billy Benedict in a small role as the printing devil of Uncle Henry.