Playing the title role of The Forest Rangers is Fred MacMurray who has both romance and an arsonist on his hands. He's got logging camp owner Susan Hayward kind of pining after him, but he gets good and swept off his feet when eastern tenderfoot Paulette Goddard comes out west with her rich dad Eugene Palette on vacation.
Palette who plays a milder version of his Seth Bullock from My Man Godfrey seems grateful to MacMurray for taking her off his hands. But Hayward gets quite a jolt as does everyone around as all assumed sooner or later MacMurray would be hitched with Sue. Hayward's not giving up either.
The scenes out in the woods are handled expertly by George Marshall. One of the funniest sequences I've ever seen in a Marshall film is when the stars are out on a river trying to cross it with the logs. Tenderfoot Goddard gets in trouble and MacMurray and Hayward are just as funny, but not so much help in the end trying to get her across.
As for the arsonist we get quite the red herring here. But when the arsonist is finally revealed you won't believe the motive.
I saw The Forest Rangers years ago and just saw it again for purposes of this review. The color cinematography looked kind of washed out and the sound wasn't the best. Hopefully this is a film that is a priority for restoration.
The song Jingle Jangle Jingle came from this film and it made a mint of money for its composers Joe Lilley and Frank Loesser. The Merry Macs had a big hit record for Decca back in the day.
Hopefully in the future we'll get treated to a restored version of The Forest Rangers.
