I'll start right off by stating that the idiot from Juneau who said this movie was a tax dodge obviously is a bitter person with some sort of ax to grind. In fact, the crew did NOT reside on John Waynes yacht in Juneau, while filming there, Mr. Wayne didn't bring his yacht to Juneau until several years later. I was a boy living in the logging camp where and when this movie was filmed, in fact, my father fell every tree you see falling in the movie, they did a fair job of keeping him out of sight and making it look as though Claude Akins was falling the trees. I was around the movie crew all that summer while they used the camp.In fact, in the scene where Claude tells the "hippy" to get a haircut, on the float plane dock, they had to shoo us out of sight of the cameras, as us kids were floating in the water, leisurely watching the filming. My family and friends found, with the exception of Eve Brent who was VERY standoffish, the entire cast and crew to be delightful people. And remember, we spent the entire summer with them, watching all of the filming. The scene where Leon Ames was operating the D-8 on the steep hillside was actually about 40' behind our little house. My routine that summer, was to get up every morning, eat breakfast, and run down to wherever they were filming, if it was in or around camp, or to jump in the pickups with them, if they were going out to the logging area for the day. These old time movie actors were real people, genuine, polite, courteous, friendly, warm. Rosie Greer taught us kids how to play touch football, football being unknown to us kids in a logging camp in S.E. Alaska...he was as light as feather on his feet for such a huge man! Many times after the days work/filming was done, the cast went salmon fishing with us, We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs together, they were completely down to earth, and never reminded us that they were from Hollywood, and we were just a bunch hick loggers and their offspring. I don't believe this film was ever intended to be more than what it was..a locally made story about a time and era that doesn't exist anymore, and if you take it as such, you wont be disappointed. It's as unpretentious as Chuck Keen himself was, and for me, takes me back to a time we'll never see again, but one I'll always feel privileged to have lived in.
