a5c7b9f00b Kelly Hansen, the tough boss of a timber crew clearing property owned by Jessie Crain and her niece, Sharon Wilks, is, unknown to anybody else, working to pay back money stolen by his brother, Joe Roberts, who has a changed name, and no love for his brother. Just as the debt is about paid-off, Joe is killed in a truck accident, which starts a blazing forest fire. Jessie Crain's niece, Sharon, wants to escape from the ranch in Nevada to life in the city. To earn money for this move, Jessie decides to sell the timber on 200 acres of her land and she hires rough-tough Kelly Hansen to oversee the work. Kelly soon falls for Sharon but she's wooed by one of the timberjacks who seems to bear Kelly a grudge. The logging industry gets a look in The Blazing Forest as Agnes Moorehead wants to sell off some timber acreage to give her niece Jo Morrow a start in life. For that reason she hires John Payne and Bill Demarest to bring in the logs. <br/><br/>Demarest contributes the financing from a settlement involving a logging accident, but Payne is the hard driving crew chief of the loggers. He has a need for money and it has to do with a no good reprobate of a brother played by Richard Arlen.<br/><br/>The film is shot in some nice color and the climax involving a forest fire is well staged. This Pine-Thomas B film from Paramount is a credit to all involved in the making. There are many great elements of this very outdoorsy romantic adventure that focuses on the logging industry. Put it in color and add some great character performers and you've got a film that is very much worth seeing even though it is far from perfect. Two of prime-time sitcom's most notorious cranks, Agnes Moorehead and William Demarest, steal without guilt every scene they are in, playing off each other wonderfully. They are joined by Suzan Morrow as Moorehead's niece and John Payne as a logging foreman, as well as veteran star Richard Arlen as a rival of Payne's. <br/><br/>In the opening scene, Morrow slaps Moorehead, and I'm surprised she lived to talk about it. Morrow is a big city gal raised by Moorehead and her late husband and easily manipulated her aunt into agreeing to sell off her lumber so she can leave the sticks behind. This is where old man Demarest comes in, putting up the starting fee, while Payne takes on the job as head foreman with a crew that already hated him. Veteran character actor Roscoe Bates has a small part leaving out his stereotypical stutter. Demarest gets to show off his talents playing the musical saw. You might cover your ears in those scenes. <br/><br/>I cringed with the chopping off each tree, but I understand that it had to be done to an extent. Seeknh the dangers involved in the logging industry increases tension, showing the power of nature over man. Fortunately, this film is deliciously colorful, and that makes it one difficult to remove your eyes from. I'm glad to have discovered a glorious print of it, and it's nice to see Moorehead in a leading part. In spite of its flaws, this is a film that I would have liked to have first seen on a big screen.
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