The Forest Rangers

Fred MacMurray is a forest ranger, obviously, and Susan Hayward is the woman he loves. Correction: she loves him, and he treats her like one of the boys. He later meets Paulette Goddard, and they get hitched, supplying the plot of rivalry between Susan and Paulette. Costarring Regis Toomey and Brian Donlevy, this movie contains a mixture of light comedy and soap opera-ish drama, making it a cross between the TV show "Dallas" and Carol Burnett's soap opera send-off, "Fresno" in the eighties (which I wish they would put on DVD.) And, the fires will knock you out and look like something out of "Backdraft." You literally can feel the heat, they're so real. I was very impressed with the fact they didn't cut corners in showing the real thing in an old movie like this. In fact, I was very impressed with everything for such a little unknown movie, which I think you will too.

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.

Seeing Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard and Susan Hayward in this rousing gorgeous technicolor movie was great fun. Story of a Forest Ranger (MacMurray), being chased by the beautiful but butch lumber mill owner (Hayward), and then meeting and falling in love at first sight with a rich girl (Goddard) makes the triangle perfect. Guy marries girl and the fun begins as the vixen tries to woo him back. Funny scene when the three of them are stranded in the woods and have to spend the night with one blanket to share between them.

Excellent forest fire scenes filmed by director Marshall. Climatic final scenes when the fire starter is surprisingly revealed and Goddard and Hayward, caught in the midst of the blazing woods, have to survive. Excellent dramatic footage of the fire and comedy of situation make this great movie fare. With today's films this one done in the early 40s still holds it's own.

Fred MacMurray is the chief of a forest ranger crew who get plenty of action fighting forest fires. Susan Hayward runs a logging operation down the road a ways. She has her eye on Fred but he thinks of her as one of the boys.

When Fred meets extremely cute Paulette Goddard riding in a parade over in town, he falls for her quickly and they are married in a snap. Poor Susan isn't too thrilled and sets about figuring a way to send Paulette packing for the city she came from.

Okay, so it's kind of a lame plot....Luckily, it really isn't developed too seriously. A typical scene is the one in which our main characters get stuck overnight in the woods with only one blanket for the three of them: lying on the forest floor, they jockey for position for about five minutes, both of the women wanting to cuddle up to Fred. It's kind of amusing in a silly way.

A subplot involves the rangers' investigation into a rash of forest fires—is logger Albert Dekker the local arsonist? The supporting cast also includes Lynne Overman as MacMurray's old-timer right hand man and Regis Toomey as a pilot who flies over fires and radios in intelligence.

Despite the mediocre story line, MacMurray, Goddard and Hayward all look great and give lively performances. The Technicolor is gorgeous and there are some intense forest fire scenes—so why bother about plot?

Also entertaining: As far as I can tell, that really is Fred MacMurray singing a ballad called "Tall Grow the Timbers."

Whoever thought the beautiful, sexy Susan Hayward would start her career playing a character named "Butch"? In The Forest Rangers, she's not the romantic lead. Paulette Goddard is the beautiful love interest to forest ranger Fred MacMurray, with masculine Susan Hayward waiting in the wings. This love triangle is amusing enough to justify renting this movie, so if you're as much a Susan Hayward fan as I am, I recommend watching it one afternoon for a good laugh.

With tons of special effects combined with real footage of forest fires and controlled burns, The Forest Rangers is a pretty impressive movie for 1942. Stunt doubles are used and abused, and the blue-screen effect is very well edited for the time period. The plot is interesting and fast-paced, and there's both a surprise and a good laugh in the end. It's a little more light-hearted than you'd expect, but it's pretty cute. Plus there's a funny scene between Fred MacMurray and Eugene Pallette straight out of any classic comedy: Fred has been out all night with Paulette, Eugene's daughter, and neither man knows who the other is. So, while Eugene is laughing about Fred's conquest, he has no idea that the girl in question is his daughter!