Though only 68 minutes, Spoilers of the Forest, a modern western that replaces the horse with the jeep, has a lot to recommend it. Its basic plot involves the preservation of Montana forests from an unscrupulous logging firm headed by the actor who played Perry Mason's Inspector Tragg, Ray Collins.
As Republic Pictures ground to a halt in 1957/58 their production of about 20 films were mostly for the drive in circuits: Naturama was their in house Cinemascope, House Queen Vera Ralston appeared in quite a few, a lot were in Trucolor, their in-house process, and most were 70 minutes. Basically they just made Midwest level films in widescreen.
In 17 years, Vera Hruba Ralston attempted every genre there was as the studio matriarch and its unheralded diva. Musicals, westerns, fantasies, film noir, and nearing the end an above average action film about one of my old childhood favorite subjects, the logging industry.
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