Ken McLaughlin is a precocious 10-year-old who lives with his family on a remote Wyoming ranch. When Ken returns home from school with failing grades, his father, Rob, blames the boy's lack of personal responsibility. At the suggestion of his wife, Nell, Rob allows Ken to choose a single colt from the herd to raise as his own. Much to his father's dismay, Ken chooses a fiery mustang filly -- but the two soon become fast friends.
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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
Pretty Good
People are voting emotionally.
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Roddy McDowall (Ken McLaughlin), Preston Foster (Rob McLaughlin), Rita Johnson (Nell McLaughlin), James Bell (Gus), Jeff Corey (Tim Murphy), Diana Hale (Hildy), Arthur Loft (Charley Sargent), and "Misty" ("Banner").Director: HAROLD SCHUSTER. Screenplay: Lillie Hayward. Adapted by Francis Edwards Faragoh from the 1941 novel by Mary O'Hara (pseudonym of Mary Alsop Sture-Vasa). Photo¬graphed in Technicolor by Dewey Wrigley. Film editor: Robert Fritch. Music: Alfred Newman. Art directors: Richard Day and Chester Gore. Set decorators: Thomas Little and Paul S. Fox. Costumes: Herschel. Equine supervisor: Jack Lindell. Technicolor color consultants: Natalie Kalmus and Henri Jaffa. Sound recording: Joseph E. Aiken and Harry M. Leonard. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Ralph Dietrich.Copyright 23 April 1943 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 26 May 1943. U.S. release: April 1943. Australian release: 6 January 1944. Sydney release at the Palace: 11 February 1944. Lengths: 7,970 feet, 88½ minutes (U.S.A.); 8,249 feet, 91½ minutes (Australia).SYNOPSIS: Amiable but dreamy-headed youngster gains maturity caring for a colt of his own. Setting: A horse ranch in Wyoming, 1941.NOTE: Sequel is Thunderhead, Son of Flicka (1945). Final film is Green Grass of Wyoming (1948).COMMENT: With its breathtakingly beautiful color location photography, its rousing music score timed to exciting vistas of horses thundering through attractive landscapes, My Friend Flicka provides an entertainment feast for horse lovers in general, Mary O'Hara fans in particular. True, Roddy McDowall makes an ingratiating young hero and the support players are capable enough, but it's the horses that are rightly the center of attraction - and they are skillfully directed and most appealingly presented. (The scene in which "Rocket" is killed is dramatically highly effective due to the deft editing of imaginative camera angles and camera movement).Of course the script does have a tendency to wash into sentiment (even the conclusion is not wholly up-beat, readying us for the sequel, Thunderhead, Son of Flicka). The dialogue also tends to be expressed in too obviously goodie-goodie clichés - particularly by the over-earnestly solicitous Swedish hired man, played somewhat exaggeratedly by James Bell. Admittedly the film doesn't go overboard, but the tendency to sucrose is there, finding its least enjoyable morphosis in Mr Bell. The rest of the cast is not so noticeably infected. Roddy McDowall manages to overcome the germ completely, while Preston Foster (who seems to have more than his share of didactic and instant information lines) is such a dull (if capable) actor anyway, it doesn't really matter. The same goes for Rita Johnson who does the understanding mother to a "T".The film is remarkably well directed by Harold Schuster. You won't find his name on any auteur lists. Director of the terrible Breakfast in Hollywood and the delightful (but routinely directed) Dinner at the Ritz, his career reached its highest point here and in Disney's So Dear to My Heart. His previous film to Flicka (signed "Charles Fuhr"), namely Bomber's Moon, is also not without interest.
This film is great! It is perfect in all ways! It has some really good acting, good plot, good director, and good characters! The plot is, young Ken Mclaughin cannot please his father.He day dreams of horses galloping through fields, when he instead should be doing his homework and chores.He finds a wild horse that he tries to train and take care of, so he can prove to his parents that he is responsible.The movie is great with some sad parts, but overall is a great, fun film for the entire family to enjoy! You really should buy the DVD, you will not be disappointed at all! It's a wonderful family film! It is MUCH better then the awful remake that doesn't even follow the book! The remake is horrible, you should REALLY watch this one and it's sequels.It is such a good movie.10/10!
From some of the comments about the first version of My Friend Flicka, you'd think the movie was 89 minutes of pure schmaltz, but I enjoyed it. It had a nice, simple feel to it and you can just see how comforting this movie might have been to the nerve-jangled America of 1943.If you can get past the occasional side trip into the corn field, there's a lot of straightforward emotion and values in MFF. Also, notice how good the color looks, how crisp the images are, and check out some very mobile camera work out on the north forty. Flicka stands out because most of the exteriors are shot in outdoors instead of in a large sound stage. It sounds silly, but it makes the movie work.Probably the only faults in the movie are in the star Roddy McDowell and his little friend, Patti Hale. Hale is so cutesy in her attempt to do a Shirley Temple impression through the movie that you want her shipped out to whatever passed for kindergarten back then. McDowell holds his own on screen with the older professionals, but it's that suppressed accent and his wimpiness that put the greatest strain on the movie. I never believed him; I kept thinking that this guy would grow up to play one effeminate killer after another on the NBC Mystery Movie.But that's just me.I'm recommending My Friend Flicka for you and your family. 89 minutes of pleasant schmaltz beats a Cheaper by the Dozen or a Happy Feet any day.
I was 8 when I saw the film. As an earlier writer said, it was before TV and during simpler times. I loved it. I haven't seen it for 6o years but some scenes still remain in my memory. Today I took my grandchildren to see Flicka. I was disappointed to find that Ken had been replaced by a nubile teenage girl and the script has been changed dramatically. I wonder what kind of film would have resulted from remaining true to the wonderful novel. It seems that stories for children can't be written now without either animation or high drama or an element of sexuality as shown in the relationship between brother Ryan and Miranda.
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