Old Yeller (1957) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe)

Old Yeller (1957)



Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860's. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog. After a series of scrapes involving raccoons, snakes, bears and all manner of animals, Travis grows to love and respect Old Yeller, who comes to have a profound effect on the boy's life.



Dorothy McGuire ... Katie Coates

Fess Parker ... Jim Coates

Jeff York ... Bud Searcy

Chuck Connors ... Burn Sanderson

Beverly Washburn ... Lisbeth Searcy

Tommy Kirk ... Travis Coates

Kevin Corcoran ... Arliss Coates



Director: Robert Stevenson



Runtime: 83 mins



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050798/
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Codecs:



Video : 617 MB, 1029 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 640*368 (16:9), DX50 = DivXNetworks Divx v5,

Audio : 76 MB, 128 Kbps, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = MPEG Layer-3, CBR,



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One of Walt Disney's most enduring films in popularity will continue to be Old Yeller. There's something in the saga of the Coates family and that yellow mutt that touches the kid in all of us.



Fess Parker, wife Dorothy McGuire, and sons Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran are the Coates family scratching out a living on a small ranch on the Texas frontier. Dad has to drive their herd to market in Kansas and he leaves the other three behind. Parker though he's second billed in the cast has barely fifteen minutes of screen time in the film. He leaves before the main action starts and returns really as anti-climax. Nevertheless he was a big name back in 1957, coming fresh off his triumph as Disney's Davy Crockett. Didn't hurt him at all to come from Texas for this part.



So McGuire is left to cope with the kids, the farm, and a newly found stray yellow dog that both the boys take to. His coloring makes his name a natural and he proves quite a useful dog, earning more than his keep on the ranch.



Sad to say though that Old Yeller provides the saddest moment in any Disney film since Bambi's mother was shot by the hunters. I really can't say too much more, but the Coates boys prove to be made of stern stuff and Dad provides some sound country wisdom as he gets back from his cattle drive.



Because the setting is out in the wilds there are few human speaking parts. All the players here are well cast, but the one who's the best by far is Jeff York as the Coates neighbor Mr. Searcy. York appeared in a whole bunch Disney features and usually stole scenes in every one of them. York's a guy who's full of wisdom in his own right, he'll dispense with advice at the drop of a hat, but when there's work to be done is usually elsewhere. McGuire does remark it's no accident he's not on the cattle drive. When she needs help on the ranch, York delegates his daughter Beverly Washburn to stay behind. She's a sweet kid and a good worker and Tommy Kirk doesn't mind having her around at all.



Chuck Connors is also in this as a visiting trail boss and I wouldn't be surprised if his appearance here in this family feature led to his family television series, The Rifleman.



Fifty years after it was released Old Yeller is still good entertainment and will be making young folks dream about that idyllic boyhood the Coates kids have on those Texas plains.



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The quintessential boy/dog movie. It does have obvious correlations with Marjorie Rawling's "The Yearling". I first saw this film on TV when I was six years old or so. Interestingly, at that time, I remember the Chuck Connors character as menacing and almost evil. On viewing as an adult, that character was a perfect gentleman, giving up the dog to the boy when he was under absolutely no obligation to do so. Also interesting to see the casual, and basically unnoticed cruelty of the Travis character toward the little girl. I don't remember even noticing that as a child. Disney knew how to make real family entertainment in those days. Now, it seems that material suitable for children is targeted directly at them, and is generally a chore for adults to sit through. OY found a way to split the difference. Truly a classic.



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This film is a film for all ages. Although it may be aimed at kids, it doesn't talk down to them, and the lesson it delivers (about learning to take responsibility as you grow up) makes no concession to the probable age of the audience, and is the more powerful for that.



Yet it also tells us that death is a natural part of life, and that life goes on. These, too, are important lessons for us all, and this film makes these points with a complete absence of preachiness.



Tommy Kirk is superb in this film.



The single flaw is Kevin Corcoran who, as usual, is a complete pain in the seat of the trousers. I think the people at Disney must have thought he was funny, or he was there for audience identification or something. He was a total irritant when I saw this as a child and he remains a total irritant as I plunge headlong into my autumn years.



Don't let that put you off the movie, though!



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After thinking really hard for awhile, I've come to decide westerns are my least favorite kind of film. I just plain old can't get excited about seeing a western. It's a lot easier to do when it's a Disney film though, and I have seen the original Parent Trap with scenes that take place on a ranch. And like most Disney films, that film really worked it's magic on me and inevitably I thought the California frontier of Mitch's ranch was a lot nicer and more inviting than Boston. So I was able to watch Old Yeller, for the first time, and enjoy it just enough because Disney film-making crews really knew how to shoot the land this was filmed on. So Old Yeller is such a good-looking movie, that if it weren't for the times and harshness of survival in the wilderness, you might want to live there. Yes, this is really a movie about a family's survival in the wilderness. And along the way, a boy and his dog have some adventures, and the boy learns the value of being a man.



Which is something we've learned about children and most kids today have at least a chance at a real childhood. The main character of this film surely is the boy Travis and how he has to do all the man's work in his family when the father is gone and how he hasn't time to be a boy. He does each day's man-sized chores but his relationship with the dog Old Yeller allows him to indulge a little in a second childhood he might not have had to enjoy living on the land. So where perhaps Disney's Bambi robbed viewer's of some information regarding the loss of an animal as more than a pet or wild game, this film really shows how much this dog means to the family and Travis. So there is quite an emotional load of work to do as an actor for little Tommy Kirk who portrays the boy Travis. And if it weren't for both the tender moments between him and the dog, as well as him and the sweet little girl Lisbeth, and him putting his survival skills to the test, we would have Disney fluff. Which is not what Old Yeller is.



Old Yeller is a very powerful film, but more than at the outset, where everyone might think the film is about the dog, it's really about the boy and his amazing duties. It really makes a viewer have to respect the old frontier land, especially farmers and families that shows like Little House on the Prairie made an example out of. The film can be a little hard on the viewer though. What is one supposed to think of the child Arliss? He helps the mother and Lisbeth load up a big wagon of corn and loves and cares for the dog, as well as the dog's puppy, Young Yeller. But too often his role in the film is to be somewhat of a troublemaker. That he does a little too well, and that mixes my feelings about the supporting characters. Though it's really just limited to this boy and his rash attitude. He is told by his mother to mind his older brother's instructions, and he consistently defies Travis. I don't want to sound like a slighted older brother myself, though I am an older brother - it's not an easy job.



The character of the mother, or Katie, is the film's strongest supporting character. Fess Parker was really the King of all of Disney's western and frontier-themed entertainment, but his role in this film accounts for less than 10 minutes total screen time. He's most important in the film in two short capacities, he has to be a good role model for Travis, which he is because he is very aptly able to build up Travis's confidence again, but he also has to leave. Because how can a boy learn how to be a man with a male role model around? I'm not sure many movies have tried to answer that riddle, though movies and television have produced some great father figures, the boy who's job is to become a man, he never seems to be able to do it with a father around. Which is unfortunate, since in reality so many family units are forced to make due without fathers. Or worse yet- good fathers. The mother displays more than enough parental responsibility, which just goes to again make a statement about the central importance of mothers.



Not a lot of westerns give the growing boy this meaty a role, but Tommy Kirk is the star of this movie for certain. And his dramatic abilities are so advanced, I almost worry for what he must have been going through at the time, and at such a young age, that he's able to get to such sensitive and heartfelt territory so effectively.