CALIFORNIAN WOODS DRAMA

Evening Star, Issue 23377, 21 September 1939, Page 2

CALIFORNIAN WOODS DRAMA

FILM OF FIGHT AGAINST DESPOLIATION Wav ue -Morris and Claire Trevor head tbo cast of ‘ Valley of the Giants,’ the technicolour picture based by Warner Brothers on the famous .Peter B. Kync novel of the same name, which will be commenced to-morrow at the Empire. It is the story of the successful fight waged to prevent the utter despoliation of California’s famous redwood forests by ruthless lumber interests (represented by Charles Bickford) around the turn of the century. While it is concerned with one local aspect of this fight, telling in highly exciting manner of the clash between one such despoiler and an altruistic young local lumberman, it is typical of the situation in California throughout the redwood country at that time. Modern audiences will discover a curious parallel between the methods employed by the exploiters of more than 30 years ago and those of the men who have come to he known to-day as racketeers. Graft and corruption, legalistic trickery and physical violence all have their part in the story, but it is the lastmentioned method that gives the new Warner picture its most thrilling moments. The picture has two hair-raising sequences. One depicts the rescue of the heroine from a runaway freight car just a moment before it reaches a trestle which, with supports deliberately cut away by the villain’s henchmen, collapses under the weight of four lumberladen flat cars. The other shows a terrific battle between villain and hero on top of a dam and the dynamiting of the dam. Supporting the two stars are Charles Bickford, Frank M'Hugh, Alan Hale, Jack Laßue, Donald Crisp, John Litel, and Dick Purcell.