Green Grass of Wyoming (1948)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Fantastic!

Absolutely Fantastic

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

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.

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.

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.

After reading Mary O'Hara's Wyoming trilogy as a schoolgirl, I was surprised to find out a third movie had been made encompassing the final book. What a disappointment! Even the fine actor Lloyd Nolan is lukewarm as Rob McLaughlin. The plot has been changed so that the story is almost unrecognizable; all that remains is that Thunderhead does steal Crown Jewel for his band and that they are rounded up eventually and Thunderhead is not shot. The book was a coming-of-age story for both Ken and for Carey, who in the book is under the domination of her overbearing grandmother. One of the crucial parts of the book is Carey's final victory over the older woman. Instead her relationship with her grandfather (in the book Beaver is her wealthy uncle) is a plot out of every other horse-racing movie of that era: washed-up trainer getting another chance. Also, in the book Crown Jewel belongs to Carey, not to Ken.