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.
Review of Green Grass of Wyoming
