Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Jim Hadley (Alan Ladd) and Monty Walker (Gilbert Roland) are logging partners who head to Deep Wells to fulfill a lucrative timber contract for the railroad.

They quickly find they aren’t welcome, certainly not by rancher Laura Riley (Jeanne Crain) or her foreman Clay Bell (Lyle Bettger).

They fear the grasslands — and even the town — will disappear under a sea of mud if the loggers strip the trees from the surrounding hillsides.

They’ve seen it happen before, to a nearby town where Clay grew up. It’s a ghost town now.

So they dynamite one wagon road and drop trees across another. Frustrated by Hadley’s efforts to win the war of will by legal means, Walker does some dynamite work of his own, seriously injuring a young man.

It’s at that point that the partners have a falling out.

Hadley doesn’t want the timber at the cost of lives; Walker isn’t quite so worried about resorting to violence to get what he wants.

Alan Ladd as Jim Hadley, preparing to cross Laura Riley’s property, against her will if necessary in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Gilbert Roland as Monty Walker, tiring of partner Jim Hadley’s patience in dealing with the ranch owners in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Review:

Ladd, appearing in his next to last Western, looks every bit of his 47 years. The older Roland has considerably more spring to his step. But it’s Ladd who lovely Jeanne Crain falls for, a romance that seems ill-fitting to the rest of the film and one that leads to a silly ending.

The film also features young heart-throb Frankie Avalon in just his second film and Ladd’s daughter, Alana in her first credited role. Her inexperience shows. Frankie, meanwhile, gets to sing a pair of songs.

We also get a spirited performance from one of the oldest members of the cast, Verna Felton, in her final film appearance. Ten years earlier, she had played Mrs. August Pennyfeather in one of the most memorable scenes from the classic Gregory Peck Western, “The Gunfighter.”

This one’s watchable, but hardly a classic.

Jeanne Crain as Laura Riley, meeting JIm Hadley for the first time in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Lyle Bettger as Clay Bell, Laura Riley’s foreman and the man who hopes to become her husband in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Directed by:
Robert Webb

Cast:
Alan Ladd … Jim Hadley
Jeanne Crain … Laura Riley
Gilbert Roland … Monty Walker
Frankie Avalon … Bert Harvey
Lyle Bettger … Clay Bell
Noah Beery Jr. … Blackie
Verna Felton … Aunt Sarah
Alana Ladd … Jane Peterson
Regis Toomey … Sheriff Taylor
Johnny Seven … Vince
George Selk … Amos Stearns
Paul E. Burns … Bill Burroughs

Runtime: 91 min.

Title tune: “Cry Timber”
Also featuring by Frankie Avalon
“Gee Whizz Whilikens Golly Gee”
and “The Faithful Kind”

Frankie Avalon as Bert Harvey, showing off his singing chops at a town dance in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Alana Ladd as Jane Peterson, fretting over the well-being of boyfriend Bert Harvey after he’s injured in a logging accident in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Memorable lines:

Laura Riley: “People get mighty stubborn when you push them into a corner.”
Jim Hadley: “That goes both ways.”

Jim Hadley: “I didn’t make the rules. And I didn’t use dynamite to carry them through.”
Laura Riley: “We’re fighting for our lives. You can’t hate us for that.”

Jim Hadley, when Laura Riley has her allies fell trees to block the new logging road through her land: “You can’t stop us with a cheap trick like this.”
Laura: “I’ll stop you any time, any way I can, Mr. Hadley.”

Sheriff Toomey: “Mr. Hadley, I want to talk to you.”
Jim Hadley: “Little late for that.”
Sheriff: “It’s never too late to stop people from killing each other.”

Sheriff Toomey, defending the views’ of the town’s residents: “Mr. Hadley, for a logger, you sure don’t know much about roots.”

Regis Toomey as Sheriff Taylor, watching the loggers arrive in town and wondering what trouble will follow in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Verna Felton as Aunt Sarah, the woman who mothers over Laura Riley and Bert Harvey in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Steve Pendleton as store owner Sam Peterson, aligned with the ranch owners in their opposition to the loggers in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Noah Beery Jr. as Blackie, leader of Jim Hadley’s crew of loggers in Guns of the Timberland (19600

Johnny Seven as Vince and Gilbert Roland as Monty Walker, preparing to blast an opening in their logging road in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Paul E. Burns as telegraph man Bill Burroughs, disappointing Jim Hadley again with the lack of news about his proposed easement in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Alan Ladd as Jim Hadley, coming to realize he and his logging crew will never be accepted in the town of Deep Wells in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Jeanne Crain as Laura Riley, prepared to give Jim Hadley a history lesson in what happens to a town after loggers leave in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Gilbert Roland as Monty Walker, prepared to use an axe if need be to get his way in Guns of the Timberland (1960)

Frankie Avalon as Bert Harvey stealing a hidden moment behind a store counter with Jane Peterson (Alana Ladd) in Guns of the Timberland (1960)