Old Yeller (1957 film)

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Old Yeller
VHS cover
Directed by	Robert Stevenson
Produced by	Bill Anderson
Written by	Novel: Fred Gipson Screenplay: Fred Gipson William Tunberg
Starring	Dorothy McGuire Fess Parker Kevin Corcoran Tommy Kirk
Music by	Oliver Wallace Will Schaefer
Cinematography	Charles P. Boyle
Editing by	Stanley E. Johnson
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	25 December 1957
Running time	83 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Followed by	Savage Sam
IMDb profile

Old Yeller (1957) is a Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Tommy Kirk, Jeff York and Beverly Washburn about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas, based upon the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. The screenplay was written by Gipson and William Tunberg and the film directed by Robert Stevenson. The success of Old Yeller led to a sequel also based on a Gipson book, Savage Sam.

Contents 1 Production 2 Plot 3 Reception 4 In other media 5 References

[edit] Production

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[edit] Plot

The Coates family consists of father Jim (Fess Parker), mother Katie (Dorothy McGuire), older son Travis (Tommy Kirk) and a younger son Arliss (Kevin Corcoran). The family is so poor the children have never seen a dollar bill, other than worthless Confederate dollars.

While Jim is away on a cattle drive, a scruffy "yeller" mutt visits the family uninvited. Travis unsuccessfully tries to shoo him off, while his younger brother Arliss takes a liking to him. Travis eventually accepts the dog and a profound bond grows between the two.

Yeller's owner Mr. Sanderson (Chuck Connors) arrives looking for his dog but comes to realize that the family needs the dog more than he does and agrees to trade the dog to Arliss in exchange for a horny toad and a home-cooked meal.

While defending the family from a Gray Wolf, Yeller is bitten and develops rabies. With a breaking heart, Travis is forced to kill Yeller to protect his mother and brother. In doing so, he takes a painful first step into manhood. Depressed from the death of his beloved dog, Travis refuses the offer of a new puppy fathered by Yeller. But then his father explains to him the facts about life and death. Travis understands and adopts the puppy, naming him "Young Yeller" in honor of his sire.

[edit] Reception

Bosley Crowther in the New York Times of December 26, 1957 praised the film's performers and called the film "a nice trim little family picture" that was a "lean and sensible screen transcription of Fred Gipson's children's book." He noted that the film was a "warm, appealing little rustic tale [that] unfolds in lovely color photography. Sentimental, yes, but also sturdy as a hickory stick."^[1]

The movie went on to become an important cultural film for baby boomers.^[2] Old Yeller's death is perhaps among the most tearful scenes in cinema. It currently has a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[3] One critic cited it as "among the best, if not THE best" of the boy-and-his-dog films.^[4]

[edit] In other media

• In the April 25, 1983 Garfield comic strip, the fat cat names Old Yeller as his favorite film, stating "I love movies with happy endings."[1]
• In an episode of Animaniacs, entitled Bumbie's Mom (spoofing Bambi), Slappy Squirrel and Skippy Squirrel watch an in-flight movie called Old Yellow, a not-so-subtle pun on Old Yeller.
• In the film Turner & Hooch, Tom Hanks tries letting the dog know he is not so valued by telling him that, as a little boy, when he saw the scene from Old Yeller where Travis shot the dog, he "did not cry!"
• In an episode of Friends entitled "The One Where Old Yeller Dies" (season 2 episode 20), Phoebe watches the end of the movie and having never seen the ending of this or any other sad film, she refers to it as "a sick doggy snuff film".
• In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air entitled "Grumpy Young Men," Carlton breaks out a video from his collection, which just happens to be Old Yeller. Will tries to shoo him out in order to get some alone time with a girl named Valerie, but fails to do so, leading her to instruct him to take a walk if he's not interested in the movie, which he proceeds to do, but not before letting them know that "they shoot the damn dog."
• In the film Stripes, Bill Murray's character uses Old Yeller as a way of bridging the gap between his platoon members asking "Who cried when Old Yeller got shot?" His platoon members see they are all similar despite their differences.
• On the March 24, 2008, edition of WWE Raw, Shawn Michaels reminded Ric Flair of the story of Old Yeller, leading the Heartbreak Kid to say that he was going to take 'Old Yeller' behind the woodshed and put him out of his misery, which was reference to the fact that their match at Wrestlemania XXIV was a career threatening one for Flair and that he would be forced into retirement if he lost. Flair retaliated by slapping Michaels twice and yelling "I've got your Old Yeller!" He went on further by asking Michaels to take 'Old Yeller' behind the woodshed right then, but Michaels' only reply was his repeated statement that he was going to put Flair out of his misery, which was followed by him walking out of the ring. In the end, Flair lost the hard fought battle at Wrestlemania and had no choice but to leave his 35 years in professional wrestling behind him.
• In the animated series, Justice League Unlimited, John Stewart's (Green Lantern) is stated as "always having a weakness for Old Yeller' (in itself a joke about a green lantern's weakness to yellow). His two ex-girlfriends laugh about it in the episode, "Hunter's Moon." In the earlier episode, "Wake The Dead," Hawkgirl uses the ending of the movie as an example to explain to John why she alone has to take out the reanimated Solomon Grundy.

[edit] References