The Tougher They Come (1950)

68-69 mins | Drama | December 1950

Director:

Ray Nazarro

Writer:

George Bricker

Producer:

Wallace MacDonald

Cinematographer:

Philip Tannura

Editor:

Aaron Stell

Production Designer:

Victor Greene

Production Company:

Columbia Pictures Corp.
Full page view
SOURCE CITATIONS
SOURCE
DATE
PAGE
Box Office
9 Dec 1950
---
Daily Variety
14 Nov 1950
p. 4
Film Daily
16 Nov 1950
p. 6
Hollywood Reporter
21 Jul 1950
p. 10
Hollywood Reporter
14 Nov 1950
p. 3
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest
18 Nov 1950
pp. 570-71
Variety
15 Nov 1950
p. 6
DETAILS
Release Date:
December 1950
Production Date:
19 Jul--29 Jul 1950
Copyright Info
Claimant
Date
Copyright Number
Columbia Pictures Corp.
1 December 1950
LP978
Physical Properties:
Sound
Western Electric Recording
Black and White
Duration(in mins):
68-69
Length(in feet):
6,176
Country:
United States
PCA No:
14823
SYNOPSIS

In Seattle, Washington, loggers Bill Shaw and Joe McKinley are friendly rivals for Helen. Joe wants to marry Helen, but she sees no future in logging and turns him down. When Joe learns that his uncle has died and left him his logging business, however, Helen imagines that Joe will live in Chicago as his uncle did, and agrees to marry him. A year later, Helen and Joe are still living at the logging camp, and Joe is trying to pull the business back from near bankruptcy. When Helen learns that Joe has had an offer for the business from lumber magnate Thompson, she insists that he consider it, even though the offer is very low. Later, Helen secretly visits Thompson and offers to help him persuade Joe to sell the business. In Seattle, Joe has a reunion with Bill, who now owns a fleet of fishing boats. Joe invites him to come north with him and Helen and log for the winter. At first, Bill is reluctant, but when he learns that Joe's crew has experienced a rash of accidents, he suspects that Thompson is trying to force Joe out of business and agrees to join them. Bill's suspicions are correct, as Joe's foreman, Gus Williams, has been paid by Thompson to sabotage Joe's operation. Back at the camp, the cook's daughter, red-headed Rattle Rafferty, is pleased by the arrival of handsome Bill. One night, Rattle sees Helen visit Bill's cabin, which leads her to believe they are having an affair. Bill, however, respects Joe's marriage, although Helen continues to flirt with him. The company is plagued ...

More Less

In Seattle, Washington, loggers Bill Shaw and Joe McKinley are friendly rivals for Helen. Joe wants to marry Helen, but she sees no future in logging and turns him down. When Joe learns that his uncle has died and left him his logging business, however, Helen imagines that Joe will live in Chicago as his uncle did, and agrees to marry him. A year later, Helen and Joe are still living at the logging camp, and Joe is trying to pull the business back from near bankruptcy. When Helen learns that Joe has had an offer for the business from lumber magnate Thompson, she insists that he consider it, even though the offer is very low. Later, Helen secretly visits Thompson and offers to help him persuade Joe to sell the business. In Seattle, Joe has a reunion with Bill, who now owns a fleet of fishing boats. Joe invites him to come north with him and Helen and log for the winter. At first, Bill is reluctant, but when he learns that Joe's crew has experienced a rash of accidents, he suspects that Thompson is trying to force Joe out of business and agrees to join them. Bill's suspicions are correct, as Joe's foreman, Gus Williams, has been paid by Thompson to sabotage Joe's operation. Back at the camp, the cook's daughter, red-headed Rattle Rafferty, is pleased by the arrival of handsome Bill. One night, Rattle sees Helen visit Bill's cabin, which leads her to believe they are having an affair. Bill, however, respects Joe's marriage, although Helen continues to flirt with him. The company is plagued by increasingly serious accidents, one of which wrecks Joe's locomotive, killing several men and injuring Bill. Rattle nurses Bill while he recovers and tells him her suspicions about Gus, but Bill dismisses them as fantasy. Meanwhile, Gus provokes Joe to fight with Bill over Helen. Later, Rafferty gets drunk in the woods on Bill's whisky and sees Gus set a fire. Using a camp phone, Rafferty calls Rattle, but Gus overhears him and knocks him unconscious. Roused by Rafferty, Rattle and Bill round up the men to fight the fire. When Gus sees them rescue Rafferty and realizes that his double-dealing will be revealed, he struggles with Bill, who finally forces him to confess that he has been working for Thompson. Back at the camp, Helen learns that Joe has been trapped by the fire and hurries to his aid. Thanks to her efforts, Joe is rescued, and he and Helen are reconciled. Later Rattle and Bill get married, and the two couples agree to work together to make a success of the business.

Less

Legend
Viewed by AFI
Partially Viewed
Offscreen Credit
Name Occurs Before Title
AFI Life Achievement Award

TOP SEARCHES

The Grapes of Wrath

According to materials contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Fox paid John Steinbeck $70,000 for the rights to his ... >>

Blue Movie

The 25 Jun 1969 Var review noted that Blue Movie was shot in Sep 1968 in New York City. Along with several other contemporary sources, ... >>

Casablanca

In the onscreen credits, actor S. Z. Sakall's name is incorrectly spelled "S. K. Sakall." HR news items add the following information about the production: ... >>

Psycho

Actor Vaughn Taylor's surname is misspelled "Tayler" in the onscreen credits. Several Jun and Jul 1959 HR news items erroneously refer to the film as Psyche. ... >>

Batman Returns

According to a 14 Jun 1992 LAT article, Warner Bros. was very eager for Tim Burton to direct the sequel to his 1989 film Batman ... >>

The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.