Green Grass of Wyoming

Sorry to say they just don't make 'em like this any more. Fine horse story back when animal pictures were popular in the late 40's. Beautifully photographed in Technicolor, the movie's a real eye-catcher, along with a fine screenplay and cast. I simply can't believe that it's the same Peggy Cummins (Carey) that the following year would terrorize the screen as the psycho-sexual Annie Laurie Starr in the noir classic Gun Crazy(1949). Here she's the perfect rural ingénue, sweet, innocent, and supportive, while she and Arthur (Ken) make an engaging young couple. Still, the contrast with Gun Crazy remains an incredible transition.

Speaking of grabbers, the magnificent horseflesh of Thunderhead and Crown Jewel should get animal Oscars for their fine performances. Okay, at least their trainers should. Then too, when the two are together, the color contrast between white-white and black-black is a real grabber. The story blends in nicely as the two families try to settle their differences through a mutual admiration for race horses (trotters or pacers, I'm not sure which). For an over-weight old guy, Coburn does well in a physically active part, while the ending seems particularly appropriate. Add the tuneful interludes of Burl Ives, and you've got perfect family fare, even for the urbanized 21st century.

This is a sweet little film, in glorious technicolor, about kids and horses - a sequel to a sequel of "My Friend Flicka". but with a different cast. Robert Arthur is charming as the lead boy and Charles Coburn as his rival is excellent. But Peggy Cummins is wretched as the love interest - so saccharine! Lloyd Nolan is good as always, but Burl Ives is wasted (and sings a truly woeful song).

But the humans don't matter much because the horses steal the show. A beautiful white stallion is the star and the glorious black mare he kidnaps is the leading lady. Together they gallop through magnificent mountain scenery like salt and pepper against the green. The scene where he seduces her is intensely erotic, and when she becomes stuck in a bog their distress is completely believable. How they got the horses to do the things they do I'll never know (and I pray it was not cruel), but they are superb.

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.

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 ****

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.