A Republic picture, based on a 1933 story by John Steinbeck, screenwritten by him, perhaps akin to The Yearling in that a boy learns to care for a pony but it dies and he grows up. A curious family relationship is at work, strict mother Myna Loy, Shepperd Strudwick the famer who doesn't quite fit in, farm hand Robert Mitchum, who seems more like the boy's father, and grandfather Louis Calhern, who tells of his days when they settled the land.
The boy, by the way is Peter Miles; it's a tough life: do your schoolwork, do your chores; his school friends are quite tough all of them. So if it's a kids' film, it's a tough kids' film.
Of further interest: colour photography from Toni Gaudio and a score by Aaron Copland.
Steinbeck's 1935 novel 'Tortilla Flat' was filmed with Spencer Tracey, Hedy Lamarr and John Garfield in 1942.
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