Zeus

The Blazing Forest (1952)

• Director
  • Edward Ludwig
• Writers
  • Lewis R. Foster(original screenplay)
  • Winston Miller(original screenplay)
• Stars
  • John Payne
  • William Demarest
  • Agnes Moorehead

  Library footage from the 1940 Paramount feature The Forest Rangers is used sparingly but effectively in the 1952 Pine-Thomas production The Blazing Forest. John Payne plays troubleshooting logger Kelly Hanson, who is hired by timber baroness Jessie Crain (Agnes Moorehead). Hanson is promised a huge bonus and percentage if he can deliver his quota of logs ahead of time, so that Jessie can afford to pay for her niece Sharon's (Susan Morrow) education. Along the way, Sharon falls in love with Hanson, only to have her heart broken when it appears that Hanson is carrying on with another woman (Lynne Roberts). All of the film's various subplots come to a head during a climactic forest fire, vividly photographed in Technicolor by Oscar-winning cinematographer Lionel Lindon.