Gabilan, mein bester Freund (1949)

Gabilan, mein bester Freund: Directed by Lewis Milestone. With Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, Louis Calhern, Shepperd Strudwick. A ranch boy is gifted with a colt, grows to love him but the colt escapes, with tragic results.

“There is an unusual abundance of talent associated with this film. The screenplay was written by one of the great American writers of the 20th century, John Steinbeck, taken from his excellent short novel of the same name. The score was written by Aaron Copland, perhaps the most noted composer in American history. The director, Lewis Milestone, made many fine pictures over a long career including Academy Award winner u0026#39;All Quiet on the Western Front.u0026#39;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll that talent doesnu0026#39;t necessarily mean that u0026#39;The Red Ponyu0026#39; is going to be the greatest movie of all time, though it is a good one. Milestoneu0026#39;s direction and Coplandu0026#39;s score are both fine, but I didnu0026#39;t feel like Steinbecku0026#39;s script was nearly as good as his book.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWe often complain when a favorite work of literature is changed considerably by the movies, but what do you say when itu0026#39;s a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author doing it to his own work? Although I donu0026#39;t think this filmed version lives up to the novel, it still covers the same ground. Itu0026#39;s about a boy growing up on a farm in Steinbecku0026#39;s beloved Salinas Valley in California, where he learns some lessons about life. One of them is that the things you think you want the most sometimes come at a much higher price than you were prepared to pay. My favorite actor in this movie was Myrna Loy as the mother. Where did I ever get the idea that she wasnu0026#39;t supposed to be that good an actress? I must have had her mixed up with someone else.”