Gregory Peck & Jane Wyman Ruggedly Shine in MGM's Heartfelt The Yearling

 

Considered by many the most elite and posh film studio from the Classic Hollywood period, MGM’s plush production values were a mainstay in creating a wealth of their output, specifically their top offerings each year. Depending on the genre, the richness brought to these films could be an asset, such as the sublimely concocted musicals with little basis in reality, or a drawback, as when trying to portray everyday events and people. However, occasionally the top talent and resources available at MGM would manage to perfectly congeal and design an honest work with no frills. Such was the case with 1946’s lovely and moving The Yearling, a Sidney Franklin production based on the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1938 bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning novel concerning the love Jody Baxter, a lonely young boy, forms with an orphaned faun. Directed by veteran Clarence Brown with great taste and skill, the involving story (expertly adapted for the screen by Paul Osborn and the uncredited John Lee Mahin) provides many emotionally vivid sequences, with the beautiful, on-location Technicolor lensing in the Florida Wilds by Arthur Arling, Charles Rosher and Leonard Smith and a stirring, impactful score by Herbert Stothart (adapting Frederick Delius’ music) enriching the verisimilitude, while a carefully-selected cast, led by Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman at their most engaging and convincing, also assist in bringing the tale to life with dramatic force and, literally, color. 

A troubled production when MGM first attempted to make the film in 1941 with Spencer Tracy starring and Victor Fleming at the helm, in 1945 the studio found the perfect director to guide the production to success with Clarence Brown, one MGM’s most reliable and commercially viable artists, who had recently brought much acclaim and box-office returns with a similarly coming-of-age film, National Velvet. Brown exhibits a rare talent for cutting through the MGM gloss and bringing great heart to the movie and still offering the quality, class production sure to gain the approval of studio head Louis B. Mayer, while guiding his A-list cast to do some of the best work of their careers. Scenes such as an exciting bear hunt early in the film, or the suspense of Jody’s father dealing with a rattlesnake bite, are staged in a striking manner by Brown, capturing a sense of time and place exquisitely and allowing an audience to fully embrace these and other adventures the Baxters encounter as they try to sustain a life as Floridan farmers, circa 1878. Post-Yearling, Brown would continue at MGM and again achieve exceptional results in a rural setting with 1949’s Intruder in the Dust, one of the screen’s best adaptations of a William Faulkner work, and one of the best depictions of the evils involved in racial prejudice.

Gregory Peck, whose stock as Hollywood’s hottest new leading man was on a steep rise after his Oscar-nominated breakthrough in Keys of the Kingdom, followed by major hits The Valley of Decision and Spellbound, added considerable weight to his already burgeoning status with his perceptive, endearing performance as Erza “Penny” Baxter, Jody’s low-key, sage, genial father. Showing a humor and spontaneity not always apparent in his many heroic roles, Peck is impressively natural and grounded as Erza, expertly delineating the warm, noble makeup of the character and serving as an ideal “Father Figure” role model. Interestingly, Peck would demonstrate great versatility immediately following Yearling with his juicy, sexy performance as Lewt McCanles in Duel in the Sun, one of his few villain roles and, from his lively playing of the ignoble Lewt, something he should have pursued more often. Post this great one-two punch (Duel reaped so-so reviews, but was a bigger hit than Yearling and everything else during the era, outside of The Best Years of Our Lives), Peck would spend the rest of his lengthy career as one of Hollywood’s most durable leading men, eventually gaining, after five nominations, a notable highlight via his Best Actor Oscar prize for one of his definitive performances and films, 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

For Jane Wyman, Yearling would provide a key vehicle in her evolution from the many lighter roles she routinely was cast in since her 1932 film debut into meatier roles of substantial dramatic heft, indicated by her acute turn as the female lead in the previous year’s Best Picture, The Lost Weekend. With her quiet, insightful and forceful work as Ora, Jody’s stern-but-caring mother determined to keep the family’s fortunes as stable as possible under sometimes dire circumstances, Wyman discloses a fine ability to honestly get at the heart of the character with a minimum of pretense, such as her going the de-glam route for the role, but without this aspect coming across as gimmicky or forced, due to Wyman’s complete dedication to the role. Wyman also does a great job showing the caring nature existing under Ora’s harsh exterior, brought about by a life of hardships, helping an audience understand the complexities inherent in this pioneering woman’s persona. After her Yearling success, Wyman would soon find greatest acclaim in her new role as one of Hollywood best performers with deft work as the deaf heroine in 1948’s Johnny Belinda, then maintain her status into the 1950’s with two further Oscar noms, including one for Douglas Sirk’s 1954’s Magnificent Obsession opposite Rock Hudson, leading to their re-teaming in one of Sirk’s most renown films, All That Heaven Allows, before capping her career on television with great acclaim and a Golden Globe via Falcon Crest in the 1980s.

With his film debut, Claude Jarman Jr. made an immediate hit with critics and audiences via his sensitive, earnest work in the demanding role of Jody, who is front and center throughout the film. A native of Nashville, Jarman was discovered after a talent search by MGM, and proved the studio’s faith in him with fine, intuitive playing of a highly professional and absorbing nature. Jarman is fully focused and vested in each scene, which pays off dramatically, specifically in moments wherein Jody is forced to face turmoil and some difficult decisions in his transition to young adulthood. The untrained Jarman displays a knack for emotional acting of a pure and intense order in these challenging scenes, believably conveying Jody’s conflicted feelings and inner pain with resourceful simplicity and moving candor. After this signature role, Jarman, who recently passed at age 90, would suffer the fate of many child stars prior to and following his brief reign in Hollywood, with the onslaught of maturity bringing diminishing demand for his talent, but not before he scored another key lead role in Brown’s Intruder, then immediately thereafter costarred in one of John Ford’s best Westerns, Rio Grande, opposite John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

The rest of the esteemed cast mainly consists of actors playing members of the somewhat rambunctious neighbors of the Baxters, the Forresters. As Ma and Pa Forrester, Clem Bevans and Margaret Wycherly have the right rural, hospitable touch, while Chili Willis shines in an appealing, touching scene as their son Buck. Forrest Tucker projects a vivid, dangerous quality to his work as Buck’s tough, volatile sibling Lem, who always seems up to a fight with anyone. Donn Gift gives possibly the most affecting supporting performance as the youngest Forrester, the wistful, contemplative Fodderwing, who is Jody’s only real friend. Among others, reliable MGM player Henry Travers lends his endearing presence as a jovial shopkeeper, at virtually the same time he was iconically playing another amiable character in It’s a Wonderful Life, which was released within days of The Yearling, while June Lockhart can be glimpsed in an early role as an innocent town maiden, Twink, years before she was Lost in Space.

Upon release in December of 1946, The Yearling equaled the popular and critical success of many other classics among the cream of the MGM crop. Faring well with Christmastime audiences and beyond, the movie’s far-reaching appeal resulted in $5,250,000 in U.S./Canadian rentals (according to Variety) placing it among the top ten box office hits of 1947. The considerable merits of the movie also found great favor during awards season, with placement among the top ten films on The New York Times list, while Gregory Peck claimed a major acting prize for his finely judged portrayal of Penny with his Best Actor in at the Golden Globes. At the Oscars, The Yearling vied for seven awards, including nods for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Peck) and Actress (Wyman), winning for Best Color Cinematography and Best Art Direction- Color by Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse and (Interior Decoration) Edwin B. Willis, with Claude Jarman Jr. also honored with a special juvenile Academy Award. One of the most artfully constructed and diverting family films ever made in Hollywood, The Yearling provides a warm, irresistible viewing experience for any film aficionado seeking a top entertainment from Hollywood’s bountiful post-WWII period.