LOGGERS

[Music] Timber. Timber. Through the towering trees, the distant cry. Timber comes echoing on the bridge. Oh, it's music to these hearty men. Men who laugh at danger when there's a cry of timber. [Music] Brett, hold on a minute. Where have you been? You were supposed to have been first out this morning. Well, I had a bad front tire on that thing. I tried to get some of them timber V yours to help me fix. That's the only tire that needs fixing. Scratch. Be late once more and you're through. [Applause] Boy, that Morgan's a real funny guy, ain't he? [Music] Well, if it ain't the wonder boy of the big wood. Tell me something, Homer. How come some worthless stiffs always wind up with a job of ease and responsibility? Not to mention no names, of course. What' you do that for? You know I hate water. [Music] What happened? Haven't I been trying to tell you all along that that bull block was rigged wrong? [Music] Shaft's busted. Casing's cracked. That does it, fellas. Well, it doesn't look like there's going to be any more work around here today. Come on, Homer. Let's head down the hill. Hey, I'm glad you said that, Homer. I got a little errand for you and Scratch to run. Any little thing you'd like, Morgan. You go down the road till you come to the mill. And when you get to the mill, you go around to the mill office. When you get to the mill office, you're likely to find Minnie. Oh, we know that. All right. And when you find Minnie, you tell her the bull block busted. And I have just fired you guys. [Music] Get out of here. I don't understand. Get out of here. I'm going to take my contact. [Music] You're absolutely right, Miss Barstow. A man with no sense of responsibility like old Homer shouldn't ought to have a You shut your big fat mouth. You're just about as worthless as he is. And get out of here, G. You're fired. Get out of here. I got everything in here. [Music] I am Minnie Sandy. I'm in trouble. Business trouble. They ain't men of my age. Ever since I took over that mill, it's been running downhill. Then I got this good contract for logging off a section of fur and I thought things were looking up. Put every plugged nickel I had into setting it up. Trouble is there's a time penalty in that contract. And if anything slows us down, why pushes me closer to the poor house? So what happened? Bull block busted. I got a day, maybe a day and a half work at the mill and then I'm down. Well, what can I do, Sandy? I wouldn't ask you, but I need $1,500 for a new bull block. I could pay you back in about 6 weeks. You see, if I don't have money, I haven't got it. [Music] Have you tried the bank? The manager hollers for the police whenever I walk in. You was my last chance. I went into the mill with the idea of boom or bust. Guess it's bust. [Music] Aunt Minnie, don't give up yet. We'll work it out. First of all, you know where you can get another block on short notice? Suppose they might have one. Ezekiel longs. [Music] It ain't getting fired that hurts. It's the way she done it. Did you hear what she said to me? Well, did you hear what she said to me? I don't know why I wasted my time around a little old Jipo outfit like this as long as I have. You know that St. Hall timber company sure been trying to get me to change jobs for a long time. They even sent a vice president over there to try to get me to change. I got a good notion to call him up and tell him that he's got himself a deal. You know, I might talk to him about you. They ought to have some sort of a laboring job that you could handle. Well, tell the truth, I'm going with the grits people. They've been after me and after me. Take over. Head push. Any way you look at it, we shouldn't have no problem. At least way he's not a man of my ability. You know, I I just feel awful sorry for Minnie. Yeah, she's sure going to have it tough with both of us gone. You know, Scratch, and I feel guilty when I think about taking that big job with Gritsm. Homer, I'd hate to tell you how much loyalty to my friends has cost me. Big jobs, good money. But I always say that a good heart and a clean conscience is worth more than gold. Hey, you suppose she really meant it? Well, I wouldn't bet on it that she didn't. Hey, maybe if we done something nice for her, like a like a box of candy, like a new bull block. [Music] Now that's pretty fair looking cat. What are you asking for? 183 $18,300. [Music] Just put it down. Well, I'll be dog gone if you ain't a rusty, beat up, wore out old bull block. Say there's a beautiful Lorraine crane. Thank you. What are you asking for it, Mr. Law? 846. Scratch. You hear that? Only $84,600 for that elegant Lray. You just put her down. Mr. Long, why don't we just take this rusty, beat up, wore out old bull blocks? I always said if there's one thing you can't have too many of in a logging camp, it's bull blocks. Gone scratch. We already got eight, nine bull blocks. Told you just add up those figures in slot. You know, I sure don't feel easy thinking about a bull block busting down just when you bite being even at most. Oh, all right. If it'll make you happy. How much is this old rusty, beat up, broke down bull box? It ain't rusty, beat up, or broke down, but it's $900. [Music] Now, put it on the list. Give me the total. $124,21382. Anything off for cash? That's fine. Those figures ain't out of line at all. I tell you what, Mr. Long, just take that old rusty, beat up, broke down bull block along with it. I'll have some of my boys come over and pick up the rest of the stuff tomorrow. [Music] $900 was too much. Anyhow, well, I tried to catch your eye. I knew you was overdoing it. Me overdoing it? What do you mean me overdoing it? Well, for one thing, I thought you was laying it on kind of thick when you started ordering them dozers and half dozen lots. One thing I can say though, that long ain't never going to be a success in the business world. Imagine us giving him an order for $124,213.82 82. And he wouldn't even let us take along a measly $900 bull block. The only way we're going to get that money is rob a bank. [Music] Bank. [Music] How you doing, Mr. Longs? You uh kin to the long in the equipment yard? We're identical twins. Are you gentlemen acquainted with my brother Zeke? Well, we've done a lot of business with him and we intend doing a lot more. That's nice. Zeke will be glad to hear that. Now, what can I do for you? Well, we Me and my associates, we're opening a little patch of timber about 10,000 acres. Sounds like quite an operation. We figure it'll be a profitable little sideline. Maybe a million dollars or so. Thanks. Duke, we'd like to see about a small loan. Merely to establish credit, of course. Of course. About eight $900. Is that what we sort of figured on scratch? Yeah. 9 900. Well, I think that can be arranged. Uh, now about the collateral for the loan. [Music] Close the door on your way out, boys. [Laughter] Ain't she the great little kid, though? Who's kidding? Oh, now Sandy, you shouldn't ought to talk that way to me and old Homer. Why ain't we the two best customers you ever had? Why don't we always tell everybody what a swell joint you run here? You're breaking my heart. What do you have? And don't try to put it on the cuff. The sleeves worn out. Sandy. Sandy, we've been friends a long time. Huh? It's because we're such good friends that we come to you. We wouldn't go to another living soul. The kind of trouble we've got. Besides, we don't know anybody else that might lend us $900. 900? What? We're that desperate. That's right. We wouldn't be trying to borrow no money off of you unless we was. Well, you can just stop trying cuz I wouldn't lend you two timber beasts a plug. Wait a minute, boys. Maybe we can make a deal. Homer, how old is that pickup of yours? I bought it new last year. Put the keys on the bar. over key. [Music] Pink slip in the pickup. [Music] There you are, boys. Hey, what what's this? The I owe you. You and that big moose have been passing on me for 2 years. $895 and five makes $900. Hey Jenny, watch this door till I get back. Huh? [Music] Here's the pink slip. And here's the key to the pickup. And here's 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 82, 83, 84. I figure with that $5 bill we got $7.84. You know, I just can't figure how a sweet little old gal like that Sandy can be so doggone small and money matters. I guess I'll just have to take that big job with Gritsm. Yeah, and I guess I'll just call that vice president over there at St. Paul and tell him that I'm available. I guess Sy's going to feel pretty sick when she sees us with those big jobs now. Yeah, you bet she will. You know, one of these days I'm going to come a wheeling through here in a big old company car and I'm going to walk in this joint like I own it. I'm going to pull out a big old roll of bills and choke a goat and nothing smaller than 50s. I'm going to say, "Sandy, seems like I owe you some money. Four, $500. I don't know how much. Why don't you just help yourself?" Anyway, we just duck the loud along. I got to get the phone. Hello. Hello. Who? Speak up, will you? It's me, Aunt Minnie. Sandy, I can't hear you. Speak up louder. It's Sandy. It's me, Sandy. You don't need to holler like that. I am I got your new bullb block. Bullblock? It's down here at Long's Yard. Where'd you get the money? Scratch. Yeah, you suppose Minnie's cooled down enough where if we went to her and and asked her real nice, she might give us her jobs back. I don't think there's a thing in this world that's going to get us our old jobs back but another bull block. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Who's that? Come out of there. Said come out of there. Meow. [Music] What are you doing here? Well, I might ask you the same thing. And what did you say if I said it was none of your business? Well, I'd say that you is a kind of a low down, miserable, backbiting skunk that might be trying to steal a bull block so you could be a big hero with a certain lady millowner we both know. Well, I can say the same thing about a certain no good blowed up son of a bull cook. but was trying to do the same thing. Well, it looks to me like that if you was a friend of mine, you'd tell a fell what you was going to do. Seems to me you could have let me know. Besides, you were supposed to be on your way to St. Paul. Well, well, I thought you as a grits markers are out to give you a call. Hey, did you get a look at that thing? Yeah. How we going to get it out of the yard? I'll bet it weighs a ton. I borrowed a truck. It's outside the fence. Well, now ain't that just dandy? All we got to do is throw it over the fence and load it on the truck. I sure hope you've been eating your spinach. [Music] Give me a hand with that line. Hey, can you run one of them things? Machinery, ain't it? Well, yeah. Then I can run it. You just take care of the line. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Well, what are you waiting for? Daylight. Yeah, [Music] the police. over [Music] there. Do something. [Music] Somebody just sneaked a 10 ton crane out of my yard. No, I'm not drunk. I don't think [Music] Has this town gone crazy? What's a crane doing on Elm Street at this hour of the night? You better get out of car. Half the town's been calling about a runaway crane. [Music] Hey, what's the matter with you? Hey, if this thing quit spinning around, I got her out of the control. Hey, would you mind telling me something? Just what are we going to do now? We're just going to drive this old rain right out to the mill and deliver that bull block. I think it's kind of noticeable us stealing a full block this way. Oh, be stupid enough to be up in the middle of the night. Okay. Okay. Okay. Hey, don't grab that. [Music] Somebody snitched. We got to get rid of the evidence. All right, come out of there. [Music] Now, where's that crane? Crane? What crane? [Music] [Music] You know something funny? Every time I get hooked up with you, I get into trouble. Sometimes I just think you're bad luck. Manurva, those boys were only trying to help you. Help. I admit they went about it the wrong way, but they had good intentions. Road to you know where is paved with good intentions. As far as I'm concerned, those boys can stay in jail till you know where is frozen over. But if you'd only give them another chance. Now look, Sandy, I'm a lady of a certain age. I got a growing grandson to raise. You know that. I got a logging operation to run. I can't put up with the kind of pestering I get from them. Minnie, huh? Got the new bullb block rig we were rolling right away. Oh, praise the Lord. Get going, Morgan. Well, while you're doing your praising, you might waste a little on scratching Homer. You wouldn't have that bull block at all if it wasn't for them. What do you mean? How do you think I got the money for it? I didn't have it. Well, I'll tell you how I got it. Those boys came in and turned over Homer's truck to me to put up his security for the loan at the bank. No, they didn't. They certainly did. And even if they were out of jail, they'll be walking for the next 6 weeks till you pay back that loan. Well, maybe I have been a little hard on the boys. The court will release him in your custody, Aunt Minnie. You can take the damages out of their wages. You want me to put them back on my payroll again? All right, I will. I got just the job for them. [Music] Boy, when I think all the good jobs I could have had, imagine a man of my executive ability bull cooking. Yeah. And a top-notch machine man like me driving a wheelbarrow. Get going, you jailbber. What do you think I'm paying you for? Keep moving. [Music] Timber, timber. through the towering trees. It's the cry of timber. Timber comes echoing all the trees. Oh, it's music to these hearty men. Men who laugh in danger when there's a cry of timber. Fall timber. The cry of [Music]