The Yearling (1946 film)

The Yearling
Theatrical release poster designed by Douglass Crockwell (November 1946)
Directed by	Clarence Brown
Screenplay by	Paul Osborn
Based on	The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Produced by	Sidney Franklin
Starring	Gregory Peck Jane Wyman Claude Jarman Jr.
Cinematography	Arthur Arling Charles Rosher Leonard Smith
Edited by	Harold F. Kress
Music by	Herbert Stothart arrangement of Frederick Delius's music
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's, Inc.
Release date	December 18, 1946 (1946-12-18)
Running time	128 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,883,000
Box office	$7,599,000

On set, L-R: Leonard Smith (cinematographer), unknown & Clarence Brown (director)

The Yearling is a 1946 family film drama directed by Clarence Brown, produced by Sidney Franklin, and released in Technicolor by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The screenplay by Paul Osborn and John Lee Mahin (uncredited) was adapted from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's 1938 novel of the same name. The film stars Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman Jr., Chill Wills, and Forrest Tucker.

The story is about a young boy who adopts a trouble-making young deer. The story was later adapted as the 1994 TV film The Yearling starring Peter Strauss and Jean Smart.

Plot

Ezra "Penny" Baxter, once a Confederate soldier, and his wife Ora, are pioneer farmers near Lake George, Florida in 1878. Their son, Jody, a boy in his pre-teen years, is their only surviving child. Jody has a wonderful relationship with his warm and loving father. Ora, however, is still haunted by the deaths of the other children of the family she had lost over the years. She is very sombre and is afraid that Jody will end up dying if she shows her parental love to him. Jody finds her somewhat unloving and unreasonable.

With all of his siblings dead and buried, Jody longs for a pet to play with and care for. Penny is sympathetic and understanding, but Ora is disgusted and believes that a pet is nothing but trouble. One morning, Jody and his parents discover that their old enemy, a bear named Old Slewfoot, has returned and killed a calf and young pig from among their stock. They set out after the bear, accompanied by Penny's dogs Perk, Rip, and Julia. They catch up with the bear, but Old Slewfoot is able to escape after Perk flees from the bear fight in terror, Penny's gun backfires, and Julia is badly injured. Upset over his best hunting dog injured from the fight, his gun useless, and his new dog Perk useless as a hunting dog, Penny decides to trade in Perk for a new gun with his neighbors, the Forresters. Jody becomes acquainted with Fodderwing, who is the youngest of the Forresters and keeps a menagerie of pets, and the two become fast friends. Lem Forrester trades Penny a new shotgun in exchange for the mongrel Perk.

One day, as Penny and Jody are tracking down their missing hogs that had been stolen by the Forresters, a rattlesnake bites Penny before he kills it with his new gun. Penny kills a doe and uses its liver to draw out the venom. Jody asks to adopt the doe's orphaned fawn. Penny permits it but warns Jody that the fawn will have to be set free when it grows up.

When Jody goes to ask his only friend, Fodderwing, to name the fawn, Jody finds out that Fodderwing has just died. However, Buck Forrester tells Jody that Fodderwing had said that if he had a fawn he would name him Flag because of its white tail. Jody and his family attend Fodderwing's funeral, and at a generous request from the Forresters, Penny offers a eulogy about Fodderwing's kindness and wisdom with the wild animals and says that in the House of the Lord Fodderwing will be healed of his crippled body, walking around as easily as anyone else.

As the months pass, Jody and Flag are inseparable. One year later (now a "yearling"), Flag has grown up and become a nuisance to the household and farm; he eats newly-grown corn, destroys fences, and tramples on tobacco crops. After Penny is injured while trying to clear another field to make up for lost crops, Penny tells Jody that he and his mother have agreed that for Jody to keep Flag he must replant corn and build the fence around the field higher. Jody works hard and even receives help from Ora with the fence, but during the night, Flag manages to jump the new fence and destroys the new corn crop. Penny orders Jody to take the deer out into the woods and shoot it. Jody takes Flag out but does not have the heart to kill it. He orders the deer to go away and never return, but Flag comes back to their property and again devours the crop. Ora (whom Jody believes had always hated his pet) shoots Flag with a double-barreled shotgun, discharging one of the barrels but only wounding the deer. Penny orders Jody to put the deer out of its "torment". Rather than let his pet deer suffer an agonizing death, he follows his father's orders and kills Flag with the remaining shell.

The loss of Jody's beloved pet deer proves too much for him to handle: overwhelmed with anger and despair, he runs away from home. Three days later, he is rescued, unconscious and adrift on the river in a canoe, by a friendly boat captain and returns home. He and Penny quickly reconcile, but Ora is still out searching for him. Just before Jody goes to bed, Ora returns and sees that he is back. She becomes filled with happiness and emotion, knowing that her huge fear of losing her last child is now over. She happily runs into Jody's room and showers him with more affection than she has before. She is no longer afraid to show her parental love to him.

Trailhead of The Yearling Trail.

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Ezra "Penny" Baxter
• Jane Wyman as Ora Baxter
• Claude Jarman Jr. as Jody
• Chill Wills as Buck Forrester
• Clem Bevans as Pa Forrester
• Margaret Wycherly as Ma Forrester
• Henry Travers as Mr. Boyles
• Forrest Tucker as Lem Forrester
• Donn Gift as Fodderwing Forrester
• Arthur Hohl as Arch Forrester (uncredited)
• June Lockhart as Twink, Oliver's Bride (uncredited)
• Houseley Stevenson as Mr. Ranger (uncredited)
• Dan White as Millwheel Forrester (uncredited)
• Jeff York as Oliver Hutto (uncredited)

Production

Image from the pre-production and location scouting of MGM

The Yearling was filmed on location in the Juniper Prairie Wilderness in the Ocala National Forest in Florida. A hiking trail in the area, "The Yearling Trail", is named after the story, and gives access to sites where the family lived whose stories inspired the novel.

MGM originally began production on The Yearling in 1941, with Spencer Tracy set to star as the patriarch, and with Victor Fleming chosen to direct. The studio also hired Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the author of the novel The Yearling, as a consultant and location scout. Rawlings marked a forest service map with locations for filming, specifically referencing the clearing she named "Baxter's Island." MGM moved to the filming location, renovated the cabin, and built surrounding buildings to create a town for a set. Once the actors arrived on location, a combination of the bugs, heat, and lack of enthusiasm for the plot made the actors leave. This led to the film being shelved after only three weeks of location shooting in Florida. (According to biographer Millicent Bell, famed novelist John P. Marquand was visiting MGM in 1941 and asked to sit in on a "Yearling" production meeting. He was amused to find that he was the only person in the meeting who had read the book.)

Production was resumed in 1945, after Clarence Brown was hired as the new director. Brown cast Gregory Peck to play Pa, Jane Wyman to play Ma, and after a long search, cast Claude Jarman Jr. to play Jody. Due to Brown's drive for perfection, the average take number for scenes was between 20-21. He also got real hunting dogs to film the bear fight scene after deciding the original city dogs were not good enough. Peck received the second of his five Oscar nominations for The Yearling, his fifth film.

Music

Herbert Stothart made arrangements of Frederick Delius's music, particularly Appalachia: Variations on an Old Slave Song, for the film.

Reception

Jac. D. Grant of the Hollywood Reporter wrote, it provides "an emotional experience seldom equaled." It's been described as "a huge success" and "a remarkable film that truly is for the entire family" by TV Guide; Variety said it is a "heart-warming story", that its "underlying power is impressive," and that "the underplaying is sometimes too static, but just as interest lags, the director injects another highlight."

The film earned $4,768,000, in the US and Canada and $2,831,000 elsewhere, making it MGM's most successful movie of the year. However, because of its high production cost, profits were only $451,000. Since the release of The Yearling, films with similar themes have been released including Old Yeller and Kes.

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Best Motion Picture	Sidney Franklin (for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)	Nominated
	Best Director	Clarence Brown	Nominated
	Best Actor	Gregory Peck	Nominated
	Best Actress	Jane Wyman	Nominated
	Best Art Direction–Interior Decoration – Color	Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse and Edwin B. Willis	Won
	Best Cinematography – Color	Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith and Arthur Arling	Won
	Best Film Editing	Harold F. Kress	Nominated
	Academy Juvenile Award	Claude Jarman Jr.	Won
Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Gregory Peck	Won

Adaptations

The Yearling was presented on Stars in the Air on February 7, 1952. The 30-minute radio adaptation starred Gregory Peck and Jean Hagen.

The Yearling (1994) was a made-for-television remake of The Yearling, broadcast on CBS in the United States.

External links

• The Yearling at IMDb
• The Yearling at AllMovie
• The Yearling at the TCM Movie Database
• The Yearling at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• The Yearling at Box Office Mojo