The Red Pony

Average family drama movie about a young boy, his new Pony and his family.Good drama and adequate acting is displayed here.The story is simple but quite entertaining for the whole family.A better script would have helped this movie.A must see for grade school children who love Horses or animals.Only for fans of this type of genre and big fans of Loy and Mitchum......

Like John Garfield, Robert Mitchum is yet another one of my very favourite actors from that particular, by-gone era of moviedom history. If you ask me, Mitchum was such an easy-to-like actor. Without any apparent pretentiousness, he casually projected just the right kind of masculinity (on-screen) which unanimously appealed to both men and women, alike. So, with keeping that in mind - Is it any wonder that I found the best scenes in The Red Pony to clearly be the ones where Mitchum played a direct part in the action? I mean, without this dude's presence I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this film to the degree that I did and I most likely would've rated it somewhat lower, as well. For the most part - I'd say that The Red Pony (which was beautifully filmed in lush Technicolor) was a film that would be best enjoyed by children. There really wasn't much of a tale in this sentimental, Hollywood Western to hold the rapt attention of an adult.

It is hard for me to believe this is a John Steinbeck novel and screen play, it is the complete opposite of anything that Steinbeck has ever written. Myrna Loy, (Alice Tiffin) plays a rather quite woman who lived in the Salinas Valley all her life and is a very calm mother with her son Tom and her aging father who repeats stories over and over again until I even got tired of hearing the grandfather, (Louis Calhern) repeat his lines over and over again. Alice Tiffin's husband came from San Jose, California and is beginning to drift away from the ranch and wants to work with his brother who lives in San Jose. Robert Mitchum, (Billy Buck) plays an outstanding role and seems to be the only person who puts his heart and soul into this picture. Louis Calhern gave a great supporting role and I just think that Myrna Loy did not belong in this film.

This was written by John Steinbeck who also wrote The Grapes Of Wrath and Tortilla Flat. It's about a young boy living on a farm with his parents, grandfather and a hired hand. He isn't too close to his father but gets along better with the hired hand, played by Robert Mitchum. Myrna Loy is the mother and the father is p***ed off at grandfather for always talking about his life. The dad gives the boy a pony for him to keep and the boy is more interested in the pony than school or anything else. One day, the pony gets out of the barn when it's raining and it gets really sick and they are not able to save it. This is a great film and it's unusual to see Robert Mitchum in this kind of role.

This is a beautiful motion picture about a boy and a horse (and there are many of those). Adapted by John Steinbeck from the author's own short stories, it captures its rural setting perfectly, and the entire production is enlivened by strong characterizations. Louis Calhern is especially fun as Grandfather, and Margaret Hamilton shines as a stern schoolmarm. But the real star, aside from the titular animal, is the dialogue. The people in this story speak so realistically and naturally, it spoils you and makes you wish all films were written this way. An added bonus is Aaron Copland's music. Remade in 1973 as a television movie by Universal.