THE RED PONY

US, 1949, 88 minutes, Colour.
Robert Mitchum, Myrna Loy, Peter Miles, Louis Calhern. Sheperd Strudwick, Margaret Hamilton, Beau Bridges.
Directed by Lewis Milestone.

The Red Pony is from a novella by Nobel prize winning author, John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is best known for the Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. California was his country and this film was made on a farm there, bringing Steinbeck country to life.
It was filmed in colour at Republic studios, better known for their small budget and B films. It has a very good cast, with veteran Myrna Loy as the mother, Louis Calhern as grandfather, Sheppard Strudwick as the father who is not comfortable on the land. Peter Miles, one of the Perreau family actors, a brother of Gigi Perreau, plays the boy Tom, learning from his family about his heritage, working on the farm. He befriends a pony which, however, dies of the end, and he has to cope with lessons about human beings, pain and suffering, and death. We’ll he relies on the help of the farm-hand, Billy, played by Robert Mitchum.
The film was directed by veteran Lewis milestone, who had directed all quiet on the western front and had a long career into the 1960s with such films as Oceans 11 and the Brando version of Mutiny on the Bounty.
The film was remade in 1973 with Maureen O’Hara? and Henry Fonda.
1. An appealing family film?
2. How was the pony a symbol of life and death? Why was it a central symbol for the title of the film?
3. How did the film establish itself in Steinbeck country, the mountains, the sea, farm-life, the animals?
4. How interesting as a view of America family life, people working on farms, relationships, the grandfather and his heritage of leading people out west? American self-consciousness and American heritage?
5. Tom as the central character? What kind of boy? Growing up to be a solid citizen? His relationship to his mother and father? Admiration for his grandfather and his grandfather’s stories? His reliance on Billy, his learning practically from Billy? His relationship with the kids at school?
6. How was Billy the hero of the film? A typical farm-hand? Knowledge and skill, helping Tom, his ordinariness and mistakes being magnified by Tom? Into disillusionment?
7. How happy was time with the pony? Why was he disillusioned when Billy said it would get better? Why did he not want the colt? Why did he change his mind at the end? What had he learnt? Was this typical of what everybody must learn about pain, suffering, life and death?
8. Alice as sympathetic, a good mother, a good wife? Her respect for her father? Her wanting to live on the land? Bringing up Tommy?
9. What kind of person was Fred? Why did he not feel at home? What was wrong with him? Did he have the respect of his son? The love of his wife? What irritated him so much with grandfather? Why? Reliance on Billy to help Tom? His time away from the farm and its effect on him? Did he really come to terms with himself and his life?
10. Grandpa as an old man with foibles? Was he so boring? Why did people not want to listen to his stories? The effect on him? What had he really done in his time? How important was it? What good sense of experience did he give? How wise in dealing with Tom?
11. The effect of the death of the pony? The sequence of the birth of the colt, Billy’s willingness to let the horse gift of the colt, Tom’s change of heart winning understood this? Tom learning about human beings and being humane and generosity through this experience? The final effect on the whole family? Smiling, the meal? a good ending?