One for the coming holidays,kleenex needed.
January 24, 1947
It isn't very often that there is realized upon the screen the innocence and trust and enchantment that are in the nature of a child or the yearning love and anxiety that a father feels for his boy. These are human emotions which are a little too sensitive and fine for easy comprehension in the usually artificial terms of films. But we've got to hand it to Metro and to everyone who helped to visualize "The Yearling" from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' great novel of that name; they have caught these rare sentiments and beauties in this picture which came to the Music Hall yesterday.
And they have also caught much of the feeling which a lonesome lad has for wild things, expressed with such tenderness and eloquence in Mrs. Rawlings' classic work. They have caught, too, the adult pain and struggle in a frontier farmer's life, the humor and spunk of rawboned rustics and the strength that derives from patient toil. All these they have richly compounded in this Technicolor film which provides such a wealth of satisfaction as few pictures ever attain.
In less loving hands, Mrs. Rawlings' story of a backwoods Florida boy whose heart wells with wild and magic torrents might have become quite a mawkish thing. For it is one of those delicate stories which depends entirely upon restraint in visualization and purity of mood. The strong bond of trust and wistful longing which exists between the boy and his "Pa" required the most sensitive tuning in order to ring sharp and true. The love of the lad for a pet lawn, which his father understands, had to be tenderly developed to appear wholly genuine. And the ultimate tragic necessity to destroy the yearling deer compelled the most sure dramatic handling to avoid the pit of bathos.
But Clarence Brown, who directed for Metro from Paul Osborn's excellent script, has revealed both his heart and his intelligence in keeping the whole thing restrained. By simple pictorial indications, devoid of gestures or "gush," he has shown the fabric and its shading which bind the father, the mother and the boy. Yet vitality and zest flow through the whole film. The many vivid incidents in the book — the dear hunt, the dog swap, the snake bite and the fight with the Forrester boys — are played with abundance of tension and great richness of graphic detail.
There's no denying that the fitness of the picture is due in large measure to the incredibly fine performance which little Claude Jarman Jr. gives. As Jody, the tow-headed farm boy, this youngster who had never acted before achieves a child characterization as haunting and appealing as any we've ever seen. Spindly, delicate of features and possessed of a melting Southern voice, he makes not a single sound or movement which does not seem completely genuine. And his confident handling of the animals reveals him plainly as their natural, primal friend.
Equally important, however, is the performance of Gregory Peck as Penny, the warm and gentle father who knows that "a boy ain't a boy for long." Although he measures several inches taller than Mrs. Rawlings original "Pa," he fills out every one of them with simple dignity and strength. And Jane Wyman, while she does not have the physical characteristics of the original "Ma," compels credulity and sympathy for a woman of stern and Spartan stripe. Chill Wills, Clem Bevans and Margaret Wycherly are robust as Forresters and little Donn Gift is pathetic and disturbing as crippled Fodderwing, the child of distant moods.
"The Yearling" is a cheerful and inspiring film about the coming to manhood of a youngster. As Jody says to his father, "I seen a sight today!
...a family classic in every sense of the word.
A few vlcsnaps.
Classy family classic of the old school.
Along with Lassie Come Home, this is one of MGM's classic family-animal melodramas, based on Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' novel, beautifully acted by Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and Claude Jarman Jr,with strong production values.
A classic tearjerker, photographed in heavenly Technicolor.
Don't forget the kleenex!
