I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Sorry to say they just don't make 'em like this any more. Fine horse story back when animal pictures were popular in the late 40's. Beautifully photographed in Technicolor, the movie's a real eye-catcher, along with a fine screenplay and cast. I simply can't believe that it's the same Peggy Cummins (Carey) that the following year would terrorize the screen as the psycho-sexual Annie Laurie Starr in the noir classic Gun Crazy(1949). Here she's the perfect rural ingénue, sweet, innocent, and supportive, while she and Arthur (Ken) make an engaging young couple. Still, the contrast with Gun Crazy remains an incredible transition.Speaking of grabbers, the magnificent horseflesh of Thunderhead and Crown Jewel should get animal Oscars for their fine performances. Okay, at least their trainers should. Then too, when the two are together, the color contrast between white-white and black-black is a real grabber. The story blends in nicely as the two families try to settle their differences through a mutual admiration for race horses (trotters or pacers, I'm not sure which). For an over-weight old guy, Coburn does well in a physically active part, while the ending seems particularly appropriate. Add the tuneful interludes of Burl Ives, and you've got perfect family fare, even for the urbanized 21st century.

Back in the sixties, when I was growing up in Lancaster, Ohio, I had heard that part of 1948's Green Grass of Wyoming was shot in Lancaster, because they wanted to film at a picturesque racetrack and grandstand setting for the harness racing scenes. I never saw the film until now, and I was delighted that it is true. On the site of the Fairfield County Fairgrounds, they filmed some wonderful action scenes. They even pronounced the name of the city correctly.I did think, though, it was strange that the film has the two owners of two horses take them all the way from Wyoming to Lancaster, OH to race them.A side note: the first shot of the race track and environs might look like an aerial shot, but it was taken from the top of Mt. Pleasant, a large mountain that rises above Lancaster, situated in the adjacent Rising Park. This mountain is a geological oddity in an area known for its rolling hills.I found the movie enjoyable. It is a coming-of-age story about a young horse lover (Carey) and a neighbor boy (Kenny). Amidst the beautiful scenery of Wyoming and Utah, they raise horses, with hopes of owning a champion trotter.I really enjoyed Peggy Cummin's portray of Carey. She has a beautiful voice and glows on screen.It is also fun to see a young Burl Ives. He sings and narrates.The highlights of the film for me were the action scenes involving animals. I have no idea how they got the horses (and other animals) to do what they did.

For this third and final film in the saga of the McLaughlin family out west all the roles were recast from My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead, Son of Flicka. The McLaughlin family is now parents Lloyd Nolan and Geraldine Wall with son Robert Arthur and young Arthur is starting to notice girls. The girl he's noticing is Peggy Cummins a new neighbor who lives with garrulous Grandpa Charles Coburn who has a bit of a drinking problem. Coburn was once a big name in the harness racing sport, but has fallen on bad times.The main problem that all of them are dealing with is white stallion Thunderhead who is giving out a mating call that all the mares from miles around are heeding. That includes a mare that Arthur has been raising for the harness racing circuit.The usual plot situations involving kids and horses are present in Green Grass Of Wyoming. And we get a few musical numbers that fit in nicely with the country atmosphere of the film, courtesy of Burl Ives who plays the McLaughlin ranch hand.Green Grass Of Wyoming is a nice family film that still holds up well for family viewing in this century.

Peggy Cummins, adopting an amusing Irish burr, plays one of those dungaree dolls who are crazy about horses and the neighboring teenage boy, wearing her blonde hair in tight pigtails and taking a stern hand with her hard-drinking, rough-hewn grandpa as if she were in-training to be his wife. The script for this family film, based on Mary O'Hara's book--and sort of a second-cousin to her popular sagas "My Friend Flicka" and "Thunderhead, Son of Flicka"--is perfunctory without being exciting, and the movie is so well-scrubbed it's beatific. Narrator Burl Ives also appears, playing a guitar-strumming ranch-hand (he entertains at the teen-dance singing the totally inappropriate novelty, "I Wish I Were Single Again") and Charles Coburn is Cummins' grandfather, who blames a mythic wild horse from running off with his mares. Charles G. Clarke's picture-postcard photography was Oscar-nominated, and deservedly so: his rich Technicolor panoramas display beautiful blue skies and vast mountain terrain, handsome ranch houses nestled in the hills and even horses who seem satisfied. The climax at the sulky races isn't a crowd-pleaser, but the film may placate animal-lovers even though it's all been done before. **1/2 from ****