Park Avenue Logger


1h 5m 1937

Brief Synopsis

Millioniare Curran, thinking his son too intellectual, sends him west to learn logging at one of his lumber camps. Unknown to his father, Grant Curan is a professional wrestler and easily able to handle the thugs that attack him at the lumber camp. This enables him to stay on the job and he soon undercovers how his father is being cheated by the local boss.

Film Details

Also Known As
Tall Timber
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb 26, 1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
George A. Hirliman Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Park Avenue Logger" by Bruce Hutchison in The Saturday Evening Post (30 Nov 1935).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono (RCA Victor System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Synopsis

Unaware that for many months his college-educated son Grant has been earning money as a wrestler named "The Masked Marvel," Park Avenue lumber magnate Mike Curran confides in a pyschiatrist that he is concerned about Grant's manliness. On advice from the psychiatrist, Mike decides to send Grant, who has been keeping his wrestler identity a secret out of fear that his father would disapprove, to his Timberlake Camp in Oregon. Anxious to please his father, Grant agrees to learn the family business from the bottom up and accepts his father's stipulation that he pretend to be the son of a friend. In Oregon, Grant, who now calls himself Bill Grant, is hired as a lumberjack by Ben Morton, the Timberlake field manager and, in spite of his unearned reputation as a Park Avenue sissy, quickly learns his trade. In addition, Grant soon ingratiates himself with Peggy O'Shea, the daughter of a rival timber magnate whose financial future has been threatened by a series of lumber car derailments. Unknown to Peggy, Paul Sangar, her father's field boss, has been conspiring with Morton to ruin her father's business by first buying up his bank notes and then sabotaging his lumber shipments. Since implementing the conspiracy, however, Sangar has fallen in love with Peggy and now sees marriage as a more pleasant way of taking over the O'Shea business. Consequently, when Peggy, who has been running the business since her father became an invalid, borrows lumberjacks from Morton so that a crucial contract deadline can be met, Sangar gives Grant the most dangerous assignments. Although Sangar also hires three thugs to beat up Grant at a local dance hall, Grant easily overwhelms his foes in front of Peggy. Sangar then finds a magazine photograph in which Grant is identified as a Curran and, after engineering another train derailment, shows it to Peggy as proof that Grant is behind the sabotage. After Peggy accuses him of the sabotage, Grant buys the O'Shea bank notes and wires his father that Morton has been embezzling company funds and is now in jail. While Mike leaves New York for Oregon, a still angry Peggy agrees to a quick marriage to Sangar. Grant, however, stalls the wedding by planting a friend's watch in Sangar's pocket and accusing his rival of theft in front of a policeman. Sangar and Grant are sent to the local jail, where Mike, who is convinced that his son has lost his mind, is about to have Morton released. After Grant shows his father a signed confession from Morton's auditor implicating him in the bank note conspiracy, however, Mike presses charges against Morton. Exonerated, Grant then proposes to Peggy and is blessed by his father, who finally is convinced of his son's manhood.

Film Details

Also Known As
Tall Timber
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Feb 26, 1937
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
George A. Hirliman Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the short story "Park Avenue Logger" by Bruce Hutchison in The Saturday Evening Post (30 Nov 1935).

Technical Specs

Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono (RCA Victor System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7 reels

Quotes

Trivia

Notes

Although the film was not viewed, the above credits and plot were taken from a cutting continuity deposited with the copyright records. Scenes for this film were shot in Eureka and Crestline, CA, and in Grant's Pass, OR, according to a Hollywood Reporter news item. Hollywood Reporter also notes that the wrestling sequence was filmed at the Hollywood Legion Stadium, where Brother Jonathan, the 258 pound "counterpart of Man Mountain Dean," who was "imported from Utah," performed. Brother Jonathan's participation in the final film has not been confirmed. The film was re-released under the title Tall Timber.