Smoky, König der Prärie (1946)

Smoky, König der Prärie: Directed by Louis King. With Fred MacMurray, Anne Baxter, Burl Ives, Bruce Cabot. Drama about the strong bond between a cowpoke and a wild bronco set during the 1940s.

“Yes, the original Smokey is a classic, now almost a period piece. Iu0026#39;m almost 70 (February 1939), and believe I saw this movie on the week it was released. I think it was my first movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYes, itu0026#39;s a beautiful, memorable, and sad story, especially when youu0026#39;re that young. I cried like I did with Bambi, but for this and a number of other reasons — not the least of which are Fred McMurrayu0026#39;s strong lead, Burl Iveu0026#39;s great renditions of what I believe are some of our most authentic American folk songs (e.g., u0026quot;The Blue Tail Flyu0026quot;), and Smokey a beautiful horse for a lasting concept of character that bonds independent loving humans to independent loving animals — it compels me to ask who, having seen it, could ever forget it? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDoes 20 Century Fox keep masters even when theyu0026#39;re succeeded by remakes? If so, Iu0026#39;d sure like to get my hands on a copy of the original. Having Googled and Cuiled for this information without any success on and off over the past year and a half, I was beginning to wonder if there might not be other intentional reasons for this filmu0026#39;s disappearance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eConceivably, as it was produced in the u0026#39;40s, the original Smokey may have contained language or stereotypes now recognized, rightly or wrongly, as politically incorrect. I may have been too young to recognize anything of this kind. More likely, Burl Iveu0026#39;s, like so many folk collectors, scholars and performers, was once blacklisted by Congress, the movie industry, and other witch hunting institutions because of alleged associations with u0026quot;communists.u0026quot; Is the movie industry trying to protect us from our/their past? On the other hand, if the filmu0026#39;s disappearance is, in fact, a casualty of such black listing or attempts at social engineering, it deprives us from seeing, and remembering, ourselves as we once were. In this case, the original Smokey needs to be re-released for its historical import at least. It is an American original.”