Green Grass of Wyoming

When I see horses, I see either a form of transportation or wonder if they taste like beef. I do NOT get misty-eyed or attach any emotional importance to them. Now don't assume I am a jerk--a lot of guys just don't get all sentimental about horses. Had the main characters been dogs or perhaps cute little orphans, then I might have been more interested. The bottom line is that I don't love horses and the only reason I saw this film was because it had Charles Coburn in it. Now DON'T give me a negative rating just because I feel this way--many people aren't sentimental about them and so I am warning these types of people to stay away from the film.

Now if you think about the wind blowing in your hair every time you see a horse or cry because you remember reading stories such as "Stormy" or "Misty of Chincoteague", then this movie is for you! You'll get a huge dose of beautiful horses and you'll get to see them running majestically in the Wyoming hills as well racing in the most exciting sport known to mankind, trotting!!! Wow. Horses,...lots and lots of beautiful horses!!

Okay, now depending on which group you are in, the rest of the plot may or may not be very important. The film begins at the ranch where Charles Coburn and his lovely granddaughter live. Playing somewhat against type, Coburn is a surly drunk. The surliness is pure Coburn, but the drunk part is pretty unusual. And, in this case, he's particularly surly because his prize horse ran off with a wild horse (Thunderhead). Much of the movie, Coburn plots on putting a bullet in Thunderhead, but eventually he and the other renegade horses are caught and none of them are turned into dog food (yay).

A more prominent plot that unfolds just a bit later is about a neighbor and their son's seemingly bone-headed decision to buy a new horse while he's away in the city. However, you know based on the type movie it is that this new and very spirited horse will one day prove itself--you just know it.

I really don't want to discuss the plot much more--partly because I'd hate to spoil it and partly because I just don't feel like it (after all, I am not a horse movie fan). My only real reason for watching it was for Coburn and in hindsight, it wasn't worth it. This is especially true because towards the end, a very old and fat Coburn is entered in the biggest trotting race in the country (as a jockey, not as a horse) and this just seemed ridiculous! Now I must say that it really looked like Coburn was driving, so they did a good job of faking it, but just who would believe that a 71 year-old man who probably weighed close to 300 pounds would be a jockey?!?

Regardless of the silliness of this casting decision, the movie is competently made--just not all that interesting unless you absolutely adore horses. At least the film was professionally made and I could respect its production values--unlike MISTY, which I think was made for a budget just over $49.95.

For this third and final film in the saga of the McLaughlin family out west all the roles were recast from My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead, Son of Flicka. The McLaughlin family is now parents Lloyd Nolan and Geraldine Wall with son Robert Arthur and young Arthur is starting to notice girls. The girl he's noticing is Peggy Cummins a new neighbor who lives with garrulous Grandpa Charles Coburn who has a bit of a drinking problem. Coburn was once a big name in the harness racing sport, but has fallen on bad times.

The main problem that all of them are dealing with is white stallion Thunderhead who is giving out a mating call that all the mares from miles around are heeding. That includes a mare that Arthur has been raising for the harness racing circuit.

The usual plot situations involving kids and horses are present in Green Grass Of Wyoming. And we get a few musical numbers that fit in nicely with the country atmosphere of the film, courtesy of Burl Ives who plays the McLaughlin ranch hand.

Green Grass Of Wyoming is a nice family film that still holds up well for family viewing in this century.

A lovely film, you get happy seeing it, and it's easy going an. The two horses that have the lead roles in the movie are adorable beautiful (stallion is white, and the mare bang black).

My personal benefit was Beaver Greenway (Charles Coburn) fine acting together with his granddaughter, and exceptionally adorable Carey Greenways (played by Peggy Cummins), which is absolutely phenomenal in the manner she treats his grandfather.

This film will apparently be Marilyn Monroe's sixth film, where she will be one of the dancers in a brief scene in the middle of the movie, but I could not see her. For those who like horses, is a must movie to watch ;-)

Back in the sixties, when I was growing up in Lancaster, Ohio, I had heard that part of 1948's Green Grass of Wyoming was shot in Lancaster, because they wanted to film at a picturesque racetrack and grandstand setting for the harness racing scenes. I never saw the film until now, and I was delighted that it is true. On the site of the Fairfield County Fairgrounds, they filmed some wonderful action scenes. They even pronounced the name of the city correctly.

I did think, though, it was strange that the film has the two owners of two horses take them all the way from Wyoming to Lancaster, OH to race them.

A side note: the first shot of the race track and environs might look like an aerial shot, but it was taken from the top of Mt. Pleasant, a large mountain that rises above Lancaster, situated in the adjacent Rising Park. This mountain is a geological oddity in an area known for its rolling hills.

I found the movie enjoyable. It is a coming-of-age story about a young horse lover (Carey) and a neighbor boy (Kenny). Amidst the beautiful scenery of Wyoming and Utah, they raise horses, with hopes of owning a champion trotter.

I really enjoyed Peggy Cummin's portray of Carey. She has a beautiful voice and glows on screen.

It is also fun to see a young Burl Ives. He sings and narrates.

The highlights of the film for me were the action scenes involving animals. I have no idea how they got the horses (and other animals) to do what they did.

Peggy Cummins, adopting an amusing Irish burr, plays one of those dungaree dolls who are crazy about horses and the neighboring teenage boy, wearing her blonde hair in tight pigtails and taking a stern hand with her hard-drinking, rough-hewn grandpa as if she were in-training to be his wife. The script for this family film, based on Mary O'Hara's book--and sort of a second-cousin to her popular sagas "My Friend Flicka" and "Thunderhead, Son of Flicka"--is perfunctory without being exciting, and the movie is so well-scrubbed it's beatific. Narrator Burl Ives also appears, playing a guitar-strumming ranch-hand (he entertains at the teen-dance singing the totally inappropriate novelty, "I Wish I Were Single Again") and Charles Coburn is Cummins' grandfather, who blames a mythic wild horse from running off with his mares. Charles G. Clarke's picture-postcard photography was Oscar-nominated, and deservedly so: his rich Technicolor panoramas display beautiful blue skies and vast mountain terrain, handsome ranch houses nestled in the hills and even horses who seem satisfied. The climax at the sulky races isn't a crowd-pleaser, but the film may placate animal-lovers even though it's all been done before. **1/2 from ****