The Yearling (1946)
Director:
Clarence Brown
Tagline:
« THRILLS! DRAMA! HEART-THROBS! (reissue print ad – all caps) »
Actors:
Penny Baxter
Orry Baxter
Jody Baxter
Buck Forrester
Pa Forrester
Rating:
(7’071 votes)
(7’071 votes)
Quotes:
« Penny Baxter: [on the occasion of the burial of Fodderwing] Oh Lord. Almighty God. It ain't for us ignorant mortals to say what's right and what's wrong. Was any one of us to be doin' of it, we'd not of bring this poor boy into the world a cripple, and his mind teched. We'd of bring him in straight and tall like his brothers, fitten to live and work and do. But in a way o' speakin', Lord, you done made it up to him. You give him a way with the wild creatures. You give him a sort of wisdom, made him knowin' and gentle. The birds come to him, and the varmints moved free about him, and like as not he could of takened a she wild-cat right in his pore twisted hands. Now you've done seed fit to take him where bein' crookedy in mind or limb don't matter. But Lord, it pleasures us to think now you've done straightened out them legs and that pore bent back and them hands. It pleasures us to think on him, movin' around as easy as any one. And Lord, give him a few red-birds and maybe a squirrel and a 'coon and a 'possum to keep him company, like he had here. All of us is somehow lonesome, and we know he'll not be lonesome, do he have them little wild things around him, if it ain't askin' too much to put a few varmints in Heaven. Thy will be done. Amen.
»
« Ma Forrester: [the mood becomes tense as Lem paces about drinking during Penny's visit] Where's ya manners Lem, drinkin' all that jug?
»
« Pa Forrester: [irate] Where's yor'n? Not givin' company a chance to wet their whistles afore dinner!
»
« Buck Forrester: [jumps up for a jug] Pa, you got the most sense for such a old buzzard!
»
« Pa Forrester: Eh, don't take no sense to crave liquor!
»
« Jody Baxter: I hate you! I hope you die!
»
Trailer:
Trailer
Runtime:128 minutes
Plots:
A boy persuades his parents to allow him to adopt a young deer, but what will happen if the deer misbehaves?
The family of Civil War veteran Penny Baxter, who lives and works on a farm in Florida with his wife, Orry, and their son, Jody. The only surviving child of the family, Jody longs for companionship and unexpectedly finds it in the form of an orphaned fawn. While Penny is supportive of his son’s four-legged friend, Orry is not, leading to heartbreaking conflict.
After the American Civil War, a rebel soldier and his wife become pioneer farmers in Florida. Their son Jody is 11 years old; he gets along well with his warm and affectionate pa, but his ma is haunted by the death of her other children, so she’s somber, even cold. The boy wants a pet: the dad is sympathetic, the mom obdurate. When a rattler bites pa, pa kills a doe to use its organs to draw out the poison. Jody begs to keep the doe’s fawn as a pet. The parents agree, and the boy and the deer are soon inseparable. The fawn grows quickly, and as a yearling tramples tobacco shoots and eats the newly-sprouted corn. This is too much for ma, and Jody has to face harsh, adult realities.
