This film adaption of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings novel The Yearling was completed on a second try. Just prior to the USA entry into World War II, a version that would have starred Spencer Tracy and Anne Revere was started, but problems developed and the project was scrapped.

If there was a jinx attached to the novel it was broken on the second try. Over 60 years later, The Yearling remains one timeless classic about a family's trials and tribulation living on a farm during the turn of the last century in the Florida swamps. Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman both were nominated for Best Actor and Actress and I'm not sure either of them was better in the performances they eventually won for.

Claude Jarman, Jr., making his film debut won a special Oscar as a juvenile performer that year. He's a most appealing lad who tries to have as normal a childhood as possible living in what we would call close to the poverty line today. The Baxter family barely scratches a living from the farm.

The main point of the plot is Jarman finding and adopting a young orphaned fawn and making it a household pet. Later on when it grows up it becomes more than a nuisance, eating the Baxter family's precious corn crop as it's sprouting out of the ground.

Jane Wyman who usually played very light roles in her early years, first got noticed for heavy drama as Ray Milland's long suffering girl friend in The Lost Weekend the year before. She takes a big giant step in her Oscar quest in this film. Wyman is a tough, but weary farm wife who struggles day by day on the farm. During the course of the film, Peck explains that she's hard as she is because of the loss of several previous children in childbirth or to disease that is no longer prevalent at the time. Other than A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, I've never seen the lack of pre-natal care for women discussed in a film. Both films take place right around the same period, one in an urban and one in a rural setting. Wyman gilds her hard portrayal with an edge of sadness that is unforgettable.

If you were to ask most people the role they most identify Gregory Peck with, I'm willing to say a good majority will answer Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Though both of these men are from the south, there's light years difference between Atticus Finch and Penny Baxter. Finch is a member of the upper class and in a profession as a lawyer while Baxter is a dirt farmer. Yet Peck speaks with a simple eloquence about life that Atticus in his best courtroom speech could not top. When a young crippled neighbor boy dies it is Peck who his family asks to say a eulogy over the grave as they're so far back in the swamps there is no clergyman anywhere around. It's one of Peck's finest moments on the screen and you will be moved to tears with it.

Speaking of which young Donn Gift as the crippled Fodderwing Forrester should also get singled out. He and Jarman have a beautifully played scene together when Jarman and Peck are visiting the neighbors. Director Clarence Brown got once in a lifetime performances from both as real kids, not Hollywood kid actors.

Jarman was so good in this that he got to do another film for MGM adapted from a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings novel, The Sun Comes Up. He was just as good in that one as a slightly older and orphan version of Jody Baxter.

The Yearling won two Oscars that for Art&Set Design and Cinematography for a color picture. Besides Wyman and Peck it was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Clarence Brown. Unfortunately this was the blockbuster year of The Best Years Of Our Lives.

Still The Yearling holds up well being a timeless classic. It's the best kind of family entertainment with a strong message about the beauty and tragedy of life and how you have to take it as it comes.

I loved this movie and was quite impressed by so much of it. However, I know if I had watched this with some members of my family, they would have hated the film because it was a manipulative tearjerker--and that sort of film isn't for everyone. So, despite my occasionally scathing reviews on IMDb, I was a sucker for this film.

What exactly did I like? Well, the biggest stand-out is the incredible cinematography. For a 1946 film, it is simply beautiful and really captures the spirit of a bygone Florida. Secondly, I could easily see why Claude Jarman, Jr. won a special Oscar for his performance as the young boy who simply adores his pet deer. His emotional range was spectacular and unlike many child stars I hate (the list is pretty long),this kid could really act. He did such a great job his performance even over-shadowed the great Gregory Peck--and that's some achievement.

PS--a final word of warning. Although most people already know this, the film falls into the "dead pet" category--just like OLD YELLER. So, if you don't want to see this type of film, I could understand why.

Once a Confederate soldier, Penny Baxter (Gregory Peck) settled on a farm in Florida with his wife Ora (Jane Wyman) in 1878. Their 11 year old son Jody lives an idyllic life except for his hard pessimistic mother. Ora is still haunted by the death of her three other children. Jody wants a pet but Ora refuses. When a rattlesnake bites Penny, they kill a doe and use its organs to draw out the poison. Jody adopts the doe's orphaned fawn with Penny's insistence. Jody's sickly friend Fodderwing dies and he names it Flag for him. Flag grows quickly destroying the crops. Penny tells Jody to take Flag out and shoot it.

This is old fashion sentimentality. It's about pioneering heroics and a coming-of-age story. Peck is the solidly superior man. Wyman is the troubled wife. All the "Pa"s from Jody do get a little tiresome. It's every other word from that kid. The Technicolor in the Florida woods looks beautiful. There are some amazing wildlife scenes. They can't make dogs fight a bear anymore. Some have called it a tear jerker. It's a little too broadly sentimental for that. I kept thinking that the deer should probably be tie down at night. This is a movie of a certain time.