Old-fashioned, predictable, and
shallow, Timber Tramps features a
rare leading performance by burly character actor Claude Akins, who plays a
tough logger heading a crew of roving laborers during a season of hard work in
Alaska. While the film’s strongest element is extensive location
photography—countless shots depict trees felled by axes,
explosives, saws, and tractors—Timber
Tramps also features a plot, or at least the slenderest approximation of
one. The gist is that Matt (Akins) assembles a team of muscular dudes after
learning of a lumber concern in Alaska that needs help. Soon Matt discovers that the proprietor of the company is his old flame, and that a young
man in her employ is her son, the date of his birth roughly coincidental to the
last time she and Matt were together. Yep, everything about Timber Tramps is painfully obvious, right down to cartoonish vignettes
of baddies played by Joseph Cotten and Cesar Romero discussing plans to
sabotage the lumber concern.
At the beginning of the story, Matt bums
around with an older friend, Deacon (Leon Ames), who lives up to his name by
periodically looking skyward and asking God for strength. One evening, while
getting drunk in a bar, Matt picks a fight with the biggest guy in the room,
massive African-American Redwood Rosenbloom (Rosey Grier). As often happens in
manly-man movies, the pointless fight leads to instant friendship. These three
form the core of the group that heads to Alaska, where Matt reunites with Corey
Sykes (Eve Brent). While working for Corey, Matt clashes with his
second-in-command, Big Swede (Tab Hunter), leading to another epic fistfight
between friendly combatants—for some reason, this picture’s hero spends more
time battling buddies than slugging villains. Matt also discovers, about an
hour after the audience makes the connection, that he’s the father of Corey’s
son.
As dumb as Timber Tramps is, the
movie is basically harmless, the low-rent equivalent of a routine John Wayne
flick. One could quibble about Ames’ awkward voiceover or the
goofy moment when Deacon has a vision of the angel Gabriel, but there’s not much
to be gained by dissecting something this feeble. Better to simply enjoy the
dopiest moments, as when Matt challenges Big Swede with this bizarre remark:
“You just let your mouth overload your ass!”
Timber
Tramps: FUNKY
Hilarious. I saw the title and assumed it must be another sexploitation flick. Claude Akins in a thong.
ReplyDeleteTo the accompaniment of Bad Company's "Feel Like Akins Love."
ReplyDeleteI saw the poster and wondered if it from 1957 rather than 1975.
ReplyDeleteI recall reading about this picture long before it was made.
ReplyDeleteIn his late-in-life autobiography Light Your Torches And Pull Up Your Tights, veteran director Tay Garnett writes of his association with Chuck Keen on a movie that was then called The Mad Trapper; you've got it written up here as Challenge To Be Free.
Per Garnett, this last was in post-production when the book was written.
Garnett then writes about how he and Chuck Keen have another picture in the works, to be called Timber Tramp (sic), mentioning most of the cast of this one.
Most references list Challenge To Be Free as Tay Garnett's final film.
My educated guess would be that Garnett started Timber Tramp, but fell ill at some point and had to step down; Keen then completed the picture under his own name.
Just curious - does Timber Tramps carry a dedication to Tay Garnett, as films in this situation often do?