THUNDER IN THE PINES (1948)

Jeff (George Reeves) and Boomer (Ralph Byrd) are war buddies who are now in the logging business together. We first see them play-fighting in a logging camp bar as Jeff has Boomer in a headlock until they are interrupted by the arrival of the buxom Pearl (Marion Martin) who has come to visit her lover Nick (Lyle Talbot), owner of the Skyline Bar. Nick, new to the logging business, hires the two friends with separate contracts and pits them against each other to see who can deliver the most logs by the spring thaw. The winner will get a cash bonus. The winner will also get Yvette (Denise Darcel), a gold digging French woman whom Jeff and Boomer met during the war. They both invited her to come to the States, so she decides she will marry the winning logger. As the men go off to their camps, Yvette takes a job at the Skyline and starts flirting with Nick, which doesn’t sit well with Pearl. The mostly friendly race, which makes the local front page, is on. Boomer is at an advantage at his spot on the river, but Nick evens things out with some sabotage when he sends someone to Boomer's camp to empty out the dynamite charges needed to break up a log jam. Boomer eventually wins the race, but the real climax involves a card game between Jeff and Nick, during which Nick cheats by looking at a mirror behind Jeff. However, a woman scorned (Pearl, who finds out that Nick has married Yvette in secret) manages to pull off her own trick, leading to Jeff winning not just the game but all of Nick's businesses. In the last scene, Jeff again has Boomer in a headlock in the bar when they're interrupted by another fancy lady.

This movie was not on my radar until it came up on the YouTube recommendation algorithm after I watched JUNGLE GODDESS which also starred Reeves and Byrd. I quite enjoyed this well-paced buddy adventure; Reeves and Byrd have a solid chemistry which could imply more than friendship—the last note I wrote while watching, as Reeves and Byrd were headlocking each other, was "The boys are in love again." They seem like a B-movie version of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien (as in 1938's BOY MEETS GIRL). The producer planned other films pairing the two, but they were never made. The screenplay is not particularly witty but a nice comic touch is present throughout. At one point, Boomer says, "There’s more to life than drinking, fighting, and chasing around," but that Jeff wouldn't understand. Jeff calls Boomer "Babyface" throughout, but when another bar patron does it, Jeff socks him in the jaw, then turns to Boomer and says, "Let’s go, Babyface!" Reeves is better looking and has a more carefree charisma than Byrd, but Byrd is awfully appealing as well. Darcel is fairly flat as the gold digger, but Marion Martin, described on IMDb as a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Mae West, and whom I know from 1938's SINNERS IN PARADISE, is quite good as Pearl, especially in the card game climax. The very busy Lyle Talbot gives one of his better mid-career performances here. Also with nice supporting bits from Michael Whelan, Greg McClure and Roscoe Ates. During the train station scene when Jeff and Boomer go to meet Yvette and realize she's meeting both of them, I thought briefly that this might turn into a roughneck DESIGN FOR LIVING. Another scene I liked has Pearl mixing up some "champagne" at the bar for a pretentious woman: bourbon, gin, vodka ("Not vodka!" warns the other bartender), bitters, ginger ale, grenadine and beer. I wish I was brave enough to try that drink. One weird thing: it was shot in sepia (like the opening of The Wizard of Oz) so all the background greenery of the forest looks a sickly brown. Still, this movie was a nice surprise that I recommend. [DVD]