Trivia for
The Yearling (1946) More at IMDbPro »

• MGM had actually begun filming "The Yearling" in 1941 with Spencer Tracy, Anne Revere, and Atlanta native Gene Eckman (who never appeared in another film) in the starring roles, Roddy McDowall as Fodderwing, and Victor Fleming directing, but the production ran into innumerable problems, including Eckman growing too quickly during filming, his thick local accent (which conflicted with Tracy's vocal quality), swarms of mosquitoes, and conflicts between Fleming and producer Sidney Franklin. After King Vidor agreed to take over directing but then dropped out, the project was cancelled - at a loss of $500,000 - when the United States entered World War II.
  
  
• During the final days of filming, actor Gregory Peck was alternating between the Florida set of this movie and a Texas set, where he was simultaneously filming Duel in the Sun (1946).
  
  
• During the ten months of filming, 32 trained animals were used, including five fawns. The fawns needed to be replaced as they aged in order to conform to the description of the title animal. The fawn found by Jody, as he pulls back the foliage, was three days old and had been rescued from a forest fire. Other animals used in filming included 126 deer, 9 black bears, 37 dogs, 53 wild birds, 17 buzzards, 1 owl, 83 chickens, 36 pigs, 8 rattlesnakes, 18 squirrels, 4 horses and 17 raccoons.
  
  
• "The Yearling" author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' own Cross Creek homestead - where she had written the novel - was used for filming some of the location scenes in the movie.
  
  
• Jane Wyman's daughter refused to speak to her for two weeks after she saw the film.
  
  
• Louis B. Mayer considered Ann Harding for the role of Ma Baxter and had her test in the early '40s.
  
  
• Most of the "atmosphere" and outdoors animal scenes were shot five years previously, by a second-unit crew sent to Florida in 1941, when the project was first begun. The film was shut down soon after the footage was shot, but when it was restarted again in 1946, the 1941 footage was used.
  
  

Related Links