I saw Old Yeller 50+ years ago, when I was young. Before that, my parents read the book to me. Meanwhile I barely thought about it, until the National Film Registry chose it for preservation among its "culturally or aesthetically significant" honorees. Then I thought I had better watch it again (via YouTube) because for all that it had left very little impression on me since and even in childhood. I see here that many people of my generation recall the film as a wonderful formative experience - a boy and his dog - a milestone in their coming-of-age. My problem may have been that, growing up in NYC, I didn't own a dog, and moreover I was afraid of dogs. The only dog with which I had contact then was a little mutt that an uncle brought with him when he visited. It insisted on jumping up at me, harmlessly but scarifyingly, whenever it could. Since then I have had dogs, and I like them. One was even a charming Heinz 57 whose main ingredient was, like Old Yeller, golden retriever. She was adorable (RIP Freddie.) So, I saw this movie when I didn't like dogs, and it made little impression. Now I have seen it while I do like dogs. I still can't cry when Tommy Kirk shoots his canine companion.
All the way through I kept thinking, it's a handsome film but it really has only one outstanding feature, namely the presence of Dorothy McGuire. Any movie with Dorothy McGuire is worth seeing, even if you have to watch Tommy Kirk and a golden retriever. (Why, by the way, does Yeller's offspring, he having mated with what seems to be a little spotted terrier, emerge pure golden retriever? I may not recall all my Mendelian genetics, but I don't think that is likely.) All the way through I kept comparing it in my mind to The Yearling. There I did and do cry when Jane Wyman shoots the little deer. I like dogs now, so it's not a question of which species gets the ax. The Yearling is simply a much better movie, much sadder and better acted. Claude Jarman acts rings around Tommy Kirk. Who would you rather see play the father, Fess Parker or Greg Peck? The story is deeper (though really they should just have penned up the deer at night so he wouldn't eat the corn). The little boy, Bide-a-Wee doesn't play like an imbecile with baby animals, including bear cubs, he caresses them and reveres them as creatures of God. Much better. Then he dies, leaving a bereft family, Chill Wills, Clem Bevans and Margaret Wycherly (if I recall correctly). Much more human than two kids and a dog.
A word to finish up on Dorothy McGuire. She had a difficult part, to keep the mother figure from descending into sappy triviality. She pulls it off. Her first major role in film was as the title character in Claudia, a young woman who must learn the reality of love and death. Then she did Katie Nolan, a woman who must harden herself and do hard things to help her child endure the harshness of life and death - in fact that is the same character as the mother in The Yearling. Here she is a sort of Claudia grown up who has learned the lesson of Katie Nolan. Altogether, the yellow dog is OK. But I'll watch the movie for Dorothy McGuire.
All the way through I kept thinking, it's a handsome film but it really has only one outstanding feature, namely the presence of Dorothy McGuire. Any movie with Dorothy McGuire is worth seeing, even if you have to watch Tommy Kirk and a golden retriever. (Why, by the way, does Yeller's offspring, he having mated with what seems to be a little spotted terrier, emerge pure golden retriever? I may not recall all my Mendelian genetics, but I don't think that is likely.) All the way through I kept comparing it in my mind to The Yearling. There I did and do cry when Jane Wyman shoots the little deer. I like dogs now, so it's not a question of which species gets the ax. The Yearling is simply a much better movie, much sadder and better acted. Claude Jarman acts rings around Tommy Kirk. Who would you rather see play the father, Fess Parker or Greg Peck? The story is deeper (though really they should just have penned up the deer at night so he wouldn't eat the corn). The little boy, Bide-a-Wee doesn't play like an imbecile with baby animals, including bear cubs, he caresses them and reveres them as creatures of God. Much better. Then he dies, leaving a bereft family, Chill Wills, Clem Bevans and Margaret Wycherly (if I recall correctly). Much more human than two kids and a dog.
A word to finish up on Dorothy McGuire. She had a difficult part, to keep the mother figure from descending into sappy triviality. She pulls it off. Her first major role in film was as the title character in Claudia, a young woman who must learn the reality of love and death. Then she did Katie Nolan, a woman who must harden herself and do hard things to help her child endure the harshness of life and death - in fact that is the same character as the mother in The Yearling. Here she is a sort of Claudia grown up who has learned the lesson of Katie Nolan. Altogether, the yellow dog is OK. But I'll watch the movie for Dorothy McGuire.