The Boy and the Eagle

A crippled boy rescues an eagle with a broken wing. He nurses the bird back to health and teaches it to fly again.

The copy I saw of this Oscar-nominated short had faded over the years, its Technicolor tints replaced by far more fragile chemical colors. Nonetheless, the elements that do survive, from Dickie Moore's narration to the fine camerawork and images of eagle, mountains and rattlesnake, have held up pretty well. Moore was at the end of his movie career, having spent a couple of decades since an infant in 1927. His co-producer, William Lasky, worked almost entirely as an assistant director; this was his only directorial credit. The message is short and sweet.

Narrator and star Dickie Moore is recovering from an accident and walks with the aid of a crutch. On a stroll in the countryside he encounters a wounded bald eagle which he manages to wrap in his leather jacket and take home. He'd read that once broken an eagle's wing could never repair itself, but he determines that just as he hopes to walk again normally, he wants the eagle to take to the air once again too. Gradually, the pair start to bond a little and when the lad comes across an angry rattlesnake on a rocky outcrop his feathered friend proves that just because it says so in the books, it doesn't mean... It's not the best quality of production here, but the lad is engaging enough and the photography illustrates nicely the sheer beauty and power of this majestic bird. It's perhaps not the most medically sound of films, but there's a message of perseverance and respect here that is no different from many of the Disney natural history type dramas that were being produced at the time.