In 1900, unscrupulous timber baron Jim Fallon plans to take advantage of a new law and make millions off California redwood. Much of the land he hopes to grab has been homesteaded by a Quaker colony, who try to persuade him to spare the giant sequoias, but these are the very trees he wants most.Kirk Douglas says this was a "bad movie" he made simply to get out of a contract. Well, I have to disagree with him. While not a great movie, or one that stands out as the best of his career (like "Ace in the Hole"), it is far from a bad movie. At the very least, it is on par with any other western of its time (though this is not a "western" in the strict sense).I don't know enough about Quakers to know if they were in California in 1900 or had some special attachment to old trees. I suppose at least some had to be there, but the tree part seems odd. But I really don't know much about modern Quakers.

In 1900, lumber mill owner Kirk Douglas (as James "Jim" B. Fallon) moves from Wisconsin west, where he hopes to make a fortune chopping down California's giant sequoia trees. After surveying the timber, Mr. Douglas learns religious homesteaders consider the 4,000 year old redwood trees to be a sacred, historical testament of God. Douglas is attracted to what he calls "wonderfully proportioned" widow Eve Miller (as Alicia Chadwick). She's a hugger, but Douglas thinks, "A tree's a tree." Arriving later, blonde showgirl Patrice Wymore (as Dora "Daisy Fisher" Figg) carries a torch for Douglas. His former goodwill ambassador Edgar Buchanan (as Walter "Yukon Lucky" Burns) decides to do the Lord's work. "Tom" the cat gets tossed on screen. While anything's possible, "The Big Trees" is apparently the last re-make of Wallace Reid's "The Valley of the Giants" (1919). This well was definitely dry.*** The Big Trees (2/5/52) Felix Feist ~ Kirk Douglas, Eve Miller, Patrice Wymore, Edgar Buchanan

The scene when the people from the forest "read" history on a redwood may have inspired Hitchcock and his screenwriters for a famous moment in "Vertigo" when Kim Novak and James Stewart walk through the trees(it is not in the original French novel)Deforestation has become one of the main concerns of our time,which gives "the big trees" a contemporary ecological feel.Kirk Douglas portrays a greedy man one of his rare parts of a disagreeable man (however there were three of these nasty persons in his 1952 work "ace in the hole' aka "the big carnival" "detective story" and this movie).In " the big trees" ,it will take tragedies and the love and faith of a woman to take him back on the right track.The forest landscapes are splendid and make the viewer feel how much people need the protection of these big trees.

"The Big Trees" is a Western, set in northern California around 1900. The main character is Jim Fallon, a timber baron who has recently moved to the state from Wisconsin. Fallon's motive is to take advantage of a new law which will allow him to stake a claim to the area's dense forests. Fallon especially has his eyes on the giant redwoods, the world's largest (and among its oldest) trees which he believes will net him a handsome profit. There is, however, a problem. A religious community have made their home in the forest and are determined to save the trees, which they regard as symbols of the power and majesty of God. So sacred are the trees to them that they even hold their services outdoors in a redwood grove rather than in a church. (The sect have some similarities with both the Amish and the Quakers, although they are probably not intended to be identified with either). A further complication arises when Fallon falls for Alicia, an attractive young widow who is a member of the sect.In the first half of the film Fallon is portrayed as a rogue, smooth and plausible but unscrupulous and not always likable. About halfway through, however, he undergoes a change of heart and becomes one of the good guys, fighting alongside the sect in order to save the trees from his former associates, who turn out to be even more greedy and unscrupulous than he ever was.The film has some good points. The photography of the Californian forests is well done and there are some good action sequences, including a scene where Kirk Douglas leaps onto a runaway train . The theme is a potentially interesting one; environmentalism was not as hot a topic in the early fifties as it has become since, so a film with a conservationist theme was something of a novelty. Moreover, the film gives an interesting slant to the subject, showing the religious roots of the environmental movement.Despite this, however, the film also has its weaknesses. The plot is excessively complex; at times it seems as though you need a thorough knowledge of Californian land law in order to understand what is going on. It also goes through too many twists and turns, with characters assumed to be bad turning out to be good and vice versa, with abrupt changes of mood. At times it all seems fairly light-hearted and then turns into serious drama as two major characters meet violent deaths in quick succession. The acting is generally poor. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, Douglas' best film or best performance, but the supporting cast are no better. Overall, "The Big Trees" tries to be unusual but ends up as just a standard action movie, and not a very good one. 5/10