The Red Pony was an early novel of John Steinbeck dealing with memories of his childhood in the Salinas Valley in California. It was Republic's prestige film for 1949 away from the B westerns that were the company's bread and butter. Herbert J. Yates even had the good sense not to have wife Vera Hruba Ralston in it.He probably spent half the studio budget signing as stars Myrna Loy who was free lancing and Robert Mitchum from RKO. In Mitchum's case it might have been a question of a favor or two owed to Howard Hughes. Both studios were B picture companies.The story takes place like Steinbeck's other classic, East of Eden, during the years before American entry into World War I. The Tiflin family has recently moved on that ranch. For Myrna Loy it was a case of going back to her roots on both the screen and the film, in real life she grew up on a ranch in Montana. But her husband Sheppard Strudwick is a school teacher and a city kid and feels an outsider. Especially when their kid Peter Miles starts hanging around with ranch hand Robert Mitchum.Anyway the lad is given a roan colored pony, a really good looking and smart animal as well. The pony and the boy take to each other and Miles follows Mitchum's instructions on care and feeding implicitly. He even teaches the pony some tricks one of which will innocently bring about the animal's ultimate demise and a Tiflin family crisis.Though the Tiflins are quite a bit up the economic scale from the Baxters, The Red Pony is very similar in plot in a lot of respects to the Marjorie Keneston Rawlings classic, The Yearling. Both are nice family films in which the boy protagonists face crises involving their respective pets. They also have some disturbing scenes in them, young Peter Miles's scrape with some buzzards might give real little kids nightmares. I may have some myself tonight.Still if you are willing to risk the bad dreams, The Red Pony is a fine family film that still holds up well after 59 years.

Two of the funniest men I ever saw were Bob and Ray. A comedy team that did some of the cleverest word play ever. An example. Bob would say, "You can see the Kimodo Dragon at the Washington Zoo. Ray would look at him and ask, "And if you wanted to see one of these interesting creatures, where might you and your family go." The delivery was slow and drawling. That's what this movie is like. It's a great story. It's about relationships and pain and isolation. It's about a father who just can't relate to his son. Then there's Billy Buck, played by Robert Mitchum. He speaks like this too. There are these pregnant pauses all over the place. You almost want to say, "Hurry up. We're not getting anywhere." The grandfather drones on about his adventures in the Western movement, driving the father crazy. The little boy has about as much charisma as a stump. I used to assign this story to ninth graders. They really like the book. The movie was so anti-climactic after the reading. They were so disappointed, it detracted from the enjoyment of the book. I'm not saying this is the worst movie ever. It could have been truly better with a little better direction and writing.

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......

There is an unusual abundance of talent associated with this film. The screenplay was written by one of the great American writers of the 20th century, John Steinbeck, taken from his excellent short novel of the same name. The score was written by Aaron Copland, perhaps the most noted composer in American history. The director, Lewis Milestone, made many fine pictures over a long career including Academy Award winner 'All Quiet on the Western Front.'All that talent doesn't necessarily mean that 'The Red Pony' is going to be the greatest movie of all time, though it is a good one. Milestone's direction and Copland's score are both fine, but I didn't feel like Steinbeck's script was nearly as good as his book.We often complain when a favorite work of literature is changed considerably by the movies, but what do you say when it's a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author doing it to his own work? Although I don't think this filmed version lives up to the novel, it still covers the same ground. It's about a boy growing up on a farm in Steinbeck's beloved Salinas Valley in California, where he learns some lessons about life. One of them is that the things you think you want the most sometimes come at a much higher price than you were prepared to pay. My favorite actor in this movie was Myrna Loy as the mother. Where did I ever get the idea that she wasn't supposed to be that good an actress? I must have had her mixed up with someone else.