The Silver Screen Oasis

I haven't seen this film in about twenty years, I remembered the great Copland score, but I was surprised the film was as good as it was ! [/b]

Hi Ken,
I hadn't seen The Red Pony in several years either. I wish that TCM would show it more often, (and would be especially ideal for Saturday afternoon programming, wouldn't you think?). I loved the naturalness of the little boy (Peter Miles) and thought that the Aaron Copland score added greatly to the movie. Other aspects of the movie that were especially wonderful: the boy's fantasy on his way to school, seeing himself and ranch hand Robert Mitchum as knights in armor and when he was feeding the chickens, imagining them as circus horses he controlled!

2 Great Performances:
Louis Calhern as the sad grandfather and Myrna Loy gave one of her most sensitive, and, given her Montana roots, what I suspect was a heartfelt performance as the mother. A world away from Nora Charles too!

I also liked Sheppard Strudwick as the awkward father who couldn't seem to please anyone, even himself and Robert Mitchum at his most natural, as the ranch-hand who was a hero to the boy. The animation of the birds and the color were a bit rough, but not the basic story, which I felt was wonderful.

This was a real surprise to me. Somehow I missed it when searching all of Bobs' movies. I thought I had seen them all, now I find I had missed one. Those imaginary scenes were so perfectly childlike, I would bet we have all had them. This is one of Bob's movies where he proves his constant comments that he never acted. "They just give me the words, and I say 'em". His performance is exactly that, he's a ranch hand who is friendly to the little boy, no stiffness, no preening, no posing for the camera. How many times he turns his back to the camera - that drives me nuts, but for him it isn't important so long as the scene looks good. Okay, I'll stop gushing, it's just this is such a good example of a great underrated actor.

Anne

Anne, one more thing that this movie reminded me of: Robert Mitchum's good acting opposite children. Even though he's scary in Night of the Hunter, he's great opposite the kids in that movie, The Red Pony, The Sundowners and even in Ryan's Daughter he has several fine scenes with youngsters. I suspect that they may have brought out something less guarded in him.

I know.

He was such a wonderful guy!!!!

Anne

I've seen The Red Pony several times and while I like Bob and Myrna's acting in this, I just feel the script and screenplay could have been so much better. It almost seems that the film doesn't know if it wants to be a children's film or appeal to more of an adult audience.

While I know that many children's films can be embraced in adult contexts, I would have a hard time showing The Red Pony to a child. The scene where they find find the animal is pretty horrendous (even Old Yeller didn't have vultures picking him over and blood everywhere). At the same time, this film never really elevated itself above a child's film in other scenes. As a result, The Red Pony is a unique oddity. Perhaps it's a film for adults that seek to relive their childhood?

In any case the cinematography and color look great and as mentioned, the performances are first rate.

Has anyone seen the made for TV remake starring Henry Fonda & Maureen O ' Hara, from the early seventies. The Mitchum character was eliminated and I thought was better than Milestone's, which is still a very good film.

I saw it a long time ago because of the stars. I had not seen the original but I quite enjoyed it. Someone needs to show it again.