As a kid, my grandfather introduced me to reading, and I recall being enthralled with Zane Grey stories of the old outdoors involving logging camps, fast moving trains and how those businesses were run. Of course, I did not end up in that business, but many decades later, when I see films that deal with that subject, I am instantly intrigued. Watching this film at the start, you begin to wonder where the "Carnival Boat" title comes into play since this surrounds a rough and tough, danger always a risk, logging camp. It turns out that the carnival boat is basically a lesser version of "Show Boat's" Cotton Blossom, traveling up and down the river which is along side the mountain pass where the aging Hobart Bosworth has been logging for decades. He's not ready to retire, but logging company owner Charles Sellon convinces him to step back and find a successor to take over his management position. That turns out to be his somewhat irresponsible son (William Boyd) who is quick to a fight, but one of the best loggers on the team. He's also a bit irresponsible, so it will take some tough life lessons to get him to settle down.
A very young Ginger Rogers, about a year out of her pairing with Fred Astaire, and fresh from Broadway, gets an adequate if unremarkable musical number as the headliner on the Carnival Boat. Her pairing with Boyd is a bit odd as he appears to be about 15 years older than her, and she appears to be barely past her teens. But she gets to show a bit of the feistiness she would later thrive on in her dozens of classic screwball comedies. The tragic Marie Prevost has a small part as the blowsy waitress on the Carnival Boat who flirts simultaneously with logging camp workers Edgar Kennedy and Harry Sweet who provide the comic relief as partners in tree cutting. Their scenes are genuinely pretty funny. Shots of the trees falling, cranes lifting them up onto the trains and then the trains speeding down the tracks to the dumping spot are quite riveting. This has a lot going on in its very short running time, but features a decent script and believable characterizations, even if Boyd and Rogers' pairing is a bit off putting at times.
A very young Ginger Rogers, about a year out of her pairing with Fred Astaire, and fresh from Broadway, gets an adequate if unremarkable musical number as the headliner on the Carnival Boat. Her pairing with Boyd is a bit odd as he appears to be about 15 years older than her, and she appears to be barely past her teens. But she gets to show a bit of the feistiness she would later thrive on in her dozens of classic screwball comedies. The tragic Marie Prevost has a small part as the blowsy waitress on the Carnival Boat who flirts simultaneously with logging camp workers Edgar Kennedy and Harry Sweet who provide the comic relief as partners in tree cutting. Their scenes are genuinely pretty funny. Shots of the trees falling, cranes lifting them up onto the trains and then the trains speeding down the tracks to the dumping spot are quite riveting. This has a lot going on in its very short running time, but features a decent script and believable characterizations, even if Boyd and Rogers' pairing is a bit off putting at times.