This movie takes me back to my days as a kid in the Fifties watching TV shows like 'Fury' and 'My Friend Flicka', although this one came out almost a decade earlier. Young kids bonding with animals was a familiar theme back then, though this one got by me until just the other day on Encore Westerns.
Filmed in Cinecolor, it almost looks like the picture is a colorized version of a black and white film, especially at the beginning of the story. Young Joel Curtis (Ted Donaldson) discovers a foal in the woods after it's mother was mauled by a bear. Inadvertently naming it 'Red' due to it's coloration, Joel decides to keep the horse and raise it on the family farm, run by Grandma Aggie (Jane Darwell). With the farm eventually facing foreclosure due to outstanding debts on the property, Joel imagines that Red might be the answer to saving the farm by training him as a race horse and selling him to a wealthy breeder who races horses for a living.
It was pretty much a foregone conclusion to this viewer that Joel and Red would never become separated no matter what lengths the picture took to get to the final horse race in which Red shows his mettle. This was one of those stories that proved you could believe in miracles if you helped the Lord above with some old fashioned hard work, determination and confidence in one's self.
To my mind though, the unsung hero in the story was a little pup named Curly who was the star of the show any time he appeared on screen. The versatile canine was part of the Rudd Weatherwax stable that also produced Lassie, and his antics in the picture are a delight. Curly helped train Red to run a circular track by racing along inside the posts, and probably had the film's funniest moment when he hung on to the rope for Red's first time out of the home made starting gate. I wonder what would have happened if he had let go.
Filmed in Cinecolor, it almost looks like the picture is a colorized version of a black and white film, especially at the beginning of the story. Young Joel Curtis (Ted Donaldson) discovers a foal in the woods after it's mother was mauled by a bear. Inadvertently naming it 'Red' due to it's coloration, Joel decides to keep the horse and raise it on the family farm, run by Grandma Aggie (Jane Darwell). With the farm eventually facing foreclosure due to outstanding debts on the property, Joel imagines that Red might be the answer to saving the farm by training him as a race horse and selling him to a wealthy breeder who races horses for a living.
It was pretty much a foregone conclusion to this viewer that Joel and Red would never become separated no matter what lengths the picture took to get to the final horse race in which Red shows his mettle. This was one of those stories that proved you could believe in miracles if you helped the Lord above with some old fashioned hard work, determination and confidence in one's self.
To my mind though, the unsung hero in the story was a little pup named Curly who was the star of the show any time he appeared on screen. The versatile canine was part of the Rudd Weatherwax stable that also produced Lassie, and his antics in the picture are a delight. Curly helped train Red to run a circular track by racing along inside the posts, and probably had the film's funniest moment when he hung on to the rope for Red's first time out of the home made starting gate. I wonder what would have happened if he had let go.