Timber Queen

This outdoor action B movie from the Pine-Thomas stable has an unexpected ingredient – humour. The manly deeds of our stalwart hero are neatly laced with the misadventures of a group of Runyonesque hoodlums.

Russ Evans (Richard Arlen), to whom flying a plane comes as naturally as shinning up a giant fir tree, is invalided out of the army and sets about rescuing young war widow Elaine Graham (Mary Beth Hughes, B movies' answer to Shelley Winters) from the machinations of an unscrupulous business man seeking to fleece her of the logging interest she inherited. To make ends meet she is singing in a night club managed by Smacksie Golden (Sheldon Leonard, in a delightful send-up of his usual gangster roles) with the ineffectual assistance of his sidekick "Squirrel" (George E Stone). Lil Boggs (played by June Havoc in a performance worthy of Joan Blondell and Lucille Ball combined) is both Smacksie's long-suffering girlfriend and Elaine's cynical wise-cracking confidante. When Russ whisks Elaine off to fell trees, the others follow, leaving their natural night club habitat to work in a logging camp in the great outdoors, motivated by a heady blend of self-interest, patriotism, and sentimentality.

This is an under-rated film, ignored or dismissed as vapid by most film cataloguers. It is a quite superior B movie, with a talented cast and a witty script adding extra value to the standard outdoor action on which the producers' reputation was based.

The title role in Timber Queen is played by Mary Beth Hughes who could lose her crown and realm due to the machinations of logging mill owner Charles Anthony Hughes. Fortunately for her she gets rescued from an unexpected source

Said source is Richard Arlen who was a Navy flier and who was invalided out of the service due to war wounds. Hughes is the widow of his best friend who was killed in the same action that Arlen received his wounds.

It's the usual kind of plot for these films, Charles Anthony Hughes is holding a note on the property and the trees there on and she has a set time to deliver logs or he takes them. With the help of Sheldon Leonard who is a shady character himself, Arlen takes on the task.

Timber Queen is from the Pine-Thomas B picture unit at Paramount and their product was always good. Even the worst of them are generally better than items from Monogram or PRC.

Acting honors here go to Sheldon Leonard who departs from his usual sinister image and plays the tough club owner for laughs. Leonard has a sidekick in George E. Stone and the two are quite funny together.

And Mary Beth Hughes is enough to keep up anyone's morale during the war years when Timber Queen came out. June Havoc is in this also and she has some good lines as she and Leonard strike a few sparks. This may be the only Sheldon Leonard ever got the girl in a film.

Timber Queen is an old movie from way before I was born that is good. Telling the story of a WWII veteran who decides to help a widow of a man he served protect the rights to the timerlands she inherited, it is a nice film with a good story and the actors all doing a good job. The film is more a comedy, but it does has some action scenes. This is a good movie to check out.

After being wounded during an air battle against the Japanese in World War 2, a pilot by the name of "Russell Evans" (Richard Arlen) returns home pending a medical discharge. While there he also intends to pay his respects to the wife of his best friend who died not too long ago. Unfortunately, neither he nor "Elaine Graham" (Mary Beth Hughes) hit it off too well. However, when Russell learns how his business partner, "Harold Talbot" (Charles Anthony Hughes) took advantage of Elaine's monetary situation he immediately attempts to rectify the situation and soon both Russell and Elaine form a partnership of their own to recoup the losses she sustained. But Harold Talbot is not pleased with the situation at all. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was pretty much an average film all around. Although there were no big stars to grace the screen the actors involved performed adequately enough given the mediocre (and at times corny) script to work with. Likewise the rather short running time (66 minutes) probably didn't help either. In any case, while this certainly isn't a bad movie by any means, I don't consider it to be anything out of the ordinary either and as a result I have rated it accordingly. Average.

"Timber Queen" is a B-movie from tiny Pine-Thomas Productions. Not surprisingly, it stars Richard Arlen...not surprising because Arlen was one of the owners of this small studio and he often made films for them.

When the story begins, Russ (Arlen) stops by to see the widow of an army buddy. At first, Elaine (Mary Beth Hughes) treats him badly...mostly because while he was away, Russ' partners took advantage of his absence and have done a lot to hurt the lumber company owned by Elaine's dead husband. When Russ realizes this, he decides to help the ladies to make a success of this business. Oddly, their new partner is a ganster-type (played, naturally, by Sheldon Leonard) and he enlists the help of his friends to act as lumberjacks. Can they make a go of it...especially when sabotage and naughtiness is afoot?

This is the epitome of a simple and modestly enjoyable B-movie. Like other Bs, it runs about an hour in length and was inexpensively made...but also worth seeing. Not exactly brilliant but solid and entertaining.