Green Grass of Wyoming (1948)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A lovely film, you get happy seeing it, and it's easy going an. The two horses that have the lead roles in the movie are adorable beautiful (stallion is white, and the mare bang black). My personal benefit was Beaver Greenway (Charles Coburn) fine acting together with his granddaughter, and exceptionally adorable Carey Greenways (played by Peggy Cummins), which is absolutely phenomenal in the manner she treats his grandfather.This film will apparently be Marilyn Monroe's sixth film, where she will be one of the dancers in a brief scene in the middle of the movie, but I could not see her. For those who like horses, is a must movie to watch ;-)

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.

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.

Mary O'Hara's trilogy, "My Friend Flicka," "Thunderhead," and "Green Grass of Wyoming" have been a treasured part of my life since I was a child. However, the three films made from them vary widely in quality, meaning specifically to their relationships to the books upon which they are based. "My Friend Flicka" is by far the best of the three, and "Thunderhead, Son of Flicka" (as it was renamed) was not bad, though each contains minor changes from the books. However, "Green Grass of Wyoming" is a total disappointment. The plot is changed so much that it bears almost no resemblance to its source. For instance, "Crown Jewel" is made into a harness horse instead of a "superb English Thoroughbred," as she is described in the book, and Burl Ives appears in a totally unnecessary role. Forget this film and go to your local library and read the book (if you can find it). This is one case in which the book is far better than the film!