Logging, Lies, and 1937 Technicolor Messes

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s Technicolor, absolutely. If you need your movies to have a coherent tone or a plot that doesn't feel like three different scripts glued together, maybe skip it. It’s for the folks who like old-school scenery and actors who know how to project to the back row.

God's Country and the Woman is a total trip. It’s set in the logging woods, but it looks like a stage play that escaped into the forest. The colors are so saturated they practically vibrate. Every time someone walks into the frame, it feels like they’re stepping into a postcard.

Beverly Roberts is the boss lady here, and she’s genuinely great. She carries a rifle like she actually knows how to use it, which is a nice change of pace for 1937. George Brent is the guy she falls for, and he spends half the movie looking like he’s trying to remember if he left the stove on back in the city.

The pacing is… well, it’s a choice. One minute we’re dealing with serious business rivalries and threats to the lumber camp, and the next we’re watching some comedy sidekick act like a total goon for five minutes straight. It’s like the editor just let the film run until they ran out of tape. Sometimes the silence in the woods is heavy, and other times it’s just noisy with people yelling about logs.

Odd moments that stuck with me:

• The way the background extras sometimes just stand there, frozen, like they forgot they were supposed to be chopping wood.
• There’s a scene in a saloon that feels a lot less polished than The Last Round-Up.
• The dialogue feels like it was written by three people who weren't allowed to speak to each other.

It’s not as slick as Broadway Melody of 1938, that’s for sure. It has this raw, unrefined quality that I honestly kind of dig. It doesn't try to be high art. It just wants to show you a forest and a romance and maybe a fistfight or two.

The middle act drags so much you can actually hear the movie sighing. Then, out of nowhere, something happens that changes everything, and it’s over before you can really process why anyone was fighting in the first place. 🌲

Honestly? It’s a bit of a disaster. A fun, loud, very colorful disaster. You can feel the studio trying to squeeze a dozen different genres into one runtime. It doesn't stick the landing, but it sure looks pretty while it’s falling.