GYPSY COLT
US, 1954, 72 minutes, Colour.
Donna Corcoran, Ward Bond, Frances Dee, Larry Keating, Lee Van Cleef.
Directed by Andrew Marton.
Gypsy colt is a reworking of Eric Knight’s Lassie Come Home. It features the studio horse, Beaut, who appeared in the television series, Fury, and in Giant. It is a very handsome horse.
This time the owner of the course is a little girl, Donna Corcoran. Her parents are played by Ward Bond and Frances Dee. It was the last film for thirties star, Frances Dee. The film is also notable for its villain, played by Lee van Clef, the horse trainer who is cruel to horses.
The bond between the little girl and the horse is very strong. The horse goes to school every afternoon to pick her up and take her home. However, with two years of drought, the parents have to sell the horse. It keeps returning home. When taken to a race meeting 500 miles away, it escapes and makes its long journey home, leaping into Rivers, jumping across canyons, being set free by little Mexican boy. And when it returns home, rains fall.
The film was directed by Andrew Marton, director of a variety of films, many action films.
1. The popularity of the film with family and children’s audiences in the fifties? Now?
2. The reworking of Lassie Come Home with a horse and a little girl? Pleasing? Convincing?
3. The farm, the training for race courses, the American countryside, mountains, rivers, desert? The musical score?
4. The little girl and her love for Gypsy? Caring for him? At school, the horse looking in the window, the tolerant teacher? The children? Gypsy taking her home?
5. Parents, hardworking, loving their daughter, having to sell the horse, unable to tell their daughter the truth? The buyer coming for the horse, the little girls being upset? Hank and his hard attitude, the whip? Frank’s reaction? Hitting him?
6. Gypsy and settling in, escaping, returning home? The little girl stealing Gypsy, her father finding them, returning the horse to the owner? Her sadness? Her father’s wise explanations?
7. Taking Gypsy to the race meeting, the little boy and his help, his father listening to him, opening the stable door? Hank and his harsh attitude? Gypsy escaping?
8. Response to Gypsy’s travel, racing through the countryside, the cowboys, the bikers, the girland serving the men, their advances, seeing the horse, the $1000 reward, pursuing the horse? Its leaping into the river, jumping the canyon? The Mexicans finding Gypsy, the little boy and setting her free?
9. Gypsy returning home, dusty, Frank and Em, the horse returning home? Frank and the deception? The owner, examining the horse, his son, saying it was not the same horse? Hank’s objections, his being fired?
10. The happy ending, the rain?
