Old Yeller is a
1957The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue
...
Walt Disney Productions
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
starring
Tommy KirkThomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:...
,
Jeff YorkJeff York was an American film and television actor who began his career in the late 1930s using the stage name Granville Owen...
and
Beverly WashburnBeverly Washburn is an American actress who appeared as a young girl in NBC's The Loretta Young Show and as an older teenager in Loretta Young's 1962-1963 CBS family drama, The New Loretta Young Show...
about a boy and a stray dog in post-
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, based upon the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book
Old YellerOld Yeller is a 1956 children's novel by Fred Gipson, which received a Newbery Honor in 1957. The title is taken from the name of the big yellow dog who is center of the book's story...
by
Fred GipsonFrederick Benjamin Gipson was an American author. He is best known for writing the 1956 novel Old Yeller, which became a popular 1957 Walt Disney film. Gipson was born on a farm near Mason in the Texas Hill Country, the son of Beck Gipson and the former Emma Deishler...
. The screenplay was written by Gipson and William Tunberg and the film was directed by
Robert StevensonRobert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....
. The success of
Old Yeller led to a sequel also based on a Gipson book,
Savage SamThe novel Savage Sam was the 1962 sequel to Old Yeller written by Fred Gipson. It was inspired by the story of former Apache captive Herman Lehmann, whom Gipson had seen give an exhibition when he was a child....
.
Plot
The Coates family consists of father Jim (
Fess ParkerFess Elisha Parker, Jr. is an American film and television actor best known for his 1950s portrayals of Davy Crockett for Walt Disney and of Daniel Boone in the late 1960s. He is also known as a wine maker and resort owner-operator....
), mother Katie (
Dorothy McGuire-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.Brought to Hollywood by producer...
), older son Travis (
Tommy KirkThomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:...
) and a younger son Arliss (
Kevin CorcoranKevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran is an American director, producer, and former child actor. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, frequently as an irrepressible character with the nickname Moochie...
). The family is so poor the children have never seen a dollar bill, other than worthless
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
dollars.
While Jim is away on a
cattle driveA cattle drive is the process of moving a herd of cattle from one place to another, usually moved and herded by cowboys on horses.Cattle drives involved cowboys on horseback moving herds of cattle long distances to market...
, a scruffy "yeller"
Blackmouth CurThe Blackmouth Cur is a rugged hunting dog that has its origins in the Southern United States of America.-Description:The Blackmouth Cur is a well-muscled rugged hunting dog whose coat comes in a number of colors and shades, generally red, yellow, brindle, fawn or buckskin. Solid black or white...
mix visits the family uninvited and scares their mule, causing it to knock down a fence. Travis unsuccessfully tries to shoo him off, while his younger brother Arliss takes a liking to him. Travis eventually accepts the dog and a profound bond grows between the two. Still Old Yeller's history of stealing food from others has caused him a bad reputation and the family's neighbor's daughter, Lizbeth Searcy, says she hopes he doesn't get into trouble because he is going to have puppies with their dog.
One day, Arliss tries to capture a bear cub and the angry mother bear charges him. Yeller rushes in to defend Arliss and drives off the bear, earning the admiration of Travis and his mom.
Yeller's owner Mr. Burn Sanderson (
Chuck ConnorsChuck Connors was an American actor and a professional basketball and baseball player, best known for his starring role in the 1950s ABC hit western series The Rifleman.-Early life:...
) arrives looking for his dog but comes to realize that the family needs the dog more than he does and agrees to trade the dog to Arliss in exchange for a horny toad and a home-cooked meal. Mr. Sanderson later warns Travis that there is a "hydrophobia" (
rabiesRabies is a viral neuroinvasive disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal but occasionally by other forms of contact...
) epidemic affecting several animals in the area and to be cautious.
One night, Yeller and Travis sleep in the corn field to get rid of the raccoons eating the corn and the two bond while looking at the stars and eventually scare away all the raccoons.
Another event is when the family cow, Old Rose, gives birth and Travis tries to bring her and the calf home. Rose however instinctively charges Travis forcing him to flee. Old Yeller manages to pounce on the cow a few times before she can hurt Travis. She then allows Travis to bring the calf home under the watchful eye of Yeller.
Then one day, Travis and Yeller set out to trap wild hogs for marking. Acting on the advice of a neighbor, Bud Searcy (
Jeff YorkJeff York was an American film and television actor who began his career in the late 1930s using the stage name Granville Owen...
), Travis tries to sit in a tree above the vicious pigs and rope them from up there, while Yeller tries to keep the pigs from escaping. However, Travis accidentally falls off the tree and into the pack of hogs below. A pig promptly slashes him and Yeller attacks the hog to rescue Travis. Travis escapes with a badly-hurt and bleeding leg, while Yeller is seriously wounded. Travis hides Yeller in a sort of rock den to protect him while he retrieves his mom. They both receive stitches and, while they recuperate, Searcy warns the Coates family of hydrophobia in the area and, to Katie's horror, of the likelihood that the pigs that Travis and Yeller were after might be infected. Katie quickly decides she has heard enough and sends Searcy off. Travis, however, consoles his mother and says that he noticed the pigs were not mad, vicious though they were. Eventually, both boy and dog fully recover.
The family soon realize that Old Rose has not been allowing her calf to feed and that she may be rabid. Watching her stumble about Travis confirms it and shoots her. While Katie and Lisbeth burn the body that night, a rabid
gray wolfThe grey wolf or gray wolf , also known as simply wolf, is the largest wild member of the Canidae family. It is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with...
attacks and Yeller is bitten and eventually develops rabies. With a breaking heart, Travis is forced to shoot Yeller. In doing so, he takes a painful first step into manhood. Depressed from the death of his beloved dog, Travis refuses the offer of a new puppy sired by Yeller. Around the same time, Jim comes home and, having learned of everything about Yeller, explains to his son the facts about life and death. Travis understands and adopts the puppy, naming him "Young Yeller" in honor of his sire.
Cast
- Fess Parker
Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. is an American film and television actor best known for his 1950s portrayals of Davy Crockett for Walt Disney and of Daniel Boone in the late 1960s. He is also known as a wine maker and resort owner-operator....
as Father (Jim)
- Dorothy McGuire
-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eventually, she succeeded on Broadway, first appearing as an understudy to Martha Scott in Our Town, and subsequently starring in the domestic comedy, Claudia.Brought to Hollywood by producer...
as Mother (Katie)
- Tommy Kirk
Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:...
as Travis
- Kevin Corcoran
Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran is an American director, producer, and former child actor. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, frequently as an irrepressible character with the nickname Moochie...
as Arliss
- Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor and a professional basketball and baseball player, best known for his starring role in the 1950s ABC hit western series The Rifleman.-Early life:...
as Mr. Burn Sanderson
- Jeff York
Jeff York was an American film and television actor who began his career in the late 1930s using the stage name Granville Owen...
as Bud Searcy
Reception and legacy
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters...
in the
New York Times of December 26, 1957 praised the film's performers and called the film "a nice little family picture" that was a "lean and sensible screen transcription of Fred Gipson's children's book." He noted that the film was a "warm, appealing little rustic tale [that] unfolds in lovely color photography. Sentimental, yes, but also sturdy as a hickory stick."
The movie went on to become an important cultural film for baby boomers. Old Yeller's death is perhaps among the most tearful scenes in cinema. It currently has a rating of 94% on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
. One critic cited it as "among the best, if not THE best" of the boy-and-his-dog films. Critic Jeff Walls notes: "Old Yeller, like the
Wizard of Oz and
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
, has come to be more than just a movie; it has become a part of our culture. If you were to walk around asking random people, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who did not know the story of Old Yeller, some who didn’t enjoy it or someone who didn’t cry. The movie’s ending has become as famous as any other in film history."
In popular culture
Many references to
Old Yeller can be found throughout popular culture, most of them centering on the effect of the film's ending on the audience:
Film
- In the film K-9, Jim Belushi tries letting a dog know he is not valued by telling him that, as a little boy, when he saw the scene from Old Yeller where Travis shot the dog, he "did not cry!"
- In the film Stripes
Stripes is a 1981 American comedy film starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, and John Candy. The director was Ivan Reitman. Stripes also featured several noted actors in their first significant movie roles, including John Larroquette, Sean Young, John Diehl and Judge...
, Bill Murray's character uses Old Yeller as a way of bridging the gap between his platoon members asking "Who cried when Old Yeller got shot?" Everyone raised their hand and in this way the platoon members realized they are all similar despite their differences.
Television
- In an episode of The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, first airing on September 20, 1984 and running for eight seasons on the NBC television network, until April 30, 1992...
season 1, Bill CosbyWilliam Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. is an American comedian, actor, author, television producer, musician and activist. A veteran stand-up performer, he got his start at various clubs, then landed a starring role in the 1960s action show, I Spy. He later starred in his own series, The Bill Cosby Show,...
as Cliff Huxtable uses the Old Yeller reference in his defense of being hard on Denise's boyfriends in a discussion with Phylicia RashadPhylicia Rashād is an American actress, best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the 1984-1992 NBC sitcom The Cosby Show....
as Clair. Clair reminds Cliff, "you know at the end of that movie, they shot Old Yeller". In a later episode, Cliff rents this movie for Rudy's video party, much to Rudy and her friends' disappointment.
- In the Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television sitcom, created by Seth MacFarlane, for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family which consists of Peter, Lois, Meg, Chris, Stewie, and their pet dog Brian...
episode "He's Too Sexy for His Fat"He's Too Sexy for His Fat" is an episode from the second season of the FOX animated series Family Guy. It is the 24th episode of Family Guy. The title is a reference to the song "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. This episode is rated TV-PG for offensive language and graphic violence .-Plot...
", a cutaway gag features a parody of the movie, in which Old Yeller is shot because of accidentally erasing a message from the answering machine.
- In an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show starred Will Smith as a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to live with his wealthy relatives in a Bel Air mansion. His lifestyle often...
entitled "Grumpy Young Men," Carlton breaks out a video from his collection, which just happens to be Old Yeller. Will tries to shoo him out in order to get some alone time with a girl named Valerie, but fails to do so, leading her to instruct him to take a walk if he's not interested in the movie, which he proceeds to do, but not before letting them know that "they shoot the damn dog."
- In an episode of Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
entitled "The One Where Old Yeller Dies" (season 2 episode 20), Phoebe watches the end of the movie and having never seen the ending of this or any other sad film, she refers to it as "a sick doggy snuff filmA snuff film or snuff movie is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation...
".
Music
- In the Gary Allan
Gary Allan Herzberg is an American country music artist, known professionally as Gary Allan.Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his debut on the United States country music scene with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale,...
song "Tough Little Boys"Tough Little Boys" is the first single released from Gary Allan's 2003 album See If I Care. The song reached Number One on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in October of 2003, becoming Allan's second straight No. 1 single.- Content :...
" there is a reference to the film: "Well I never cried when Old Yeller died, at least not in front of my friends".
- In the Confederate Railroad
Confederate Railroad is an American country music band founded in 1984 in Marietta, Georgia by Danny Shirley , Michael Lamb , Mark Dufresne , Chris McDaniel , Warren "Gates" Nichols and Wayne Secrest...
song "She Never Cried" a line says "She never cried when Old Yeller died, so do you think I'll cry when she's gone."
- In the "Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, actor, comedian, and satirist. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
song "It's All About the Pentiums"It's All About the Pentiums" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "It's All about the Benjamins " by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and focuses on the narrator's obsession with his computer's hardware.-Track listing:...
", a reference is made to Old Yeller in the lyrics: "I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller / You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Helen Keller".
Comics
- In the April 25, 1983 Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
comic strip, the cat names Old Yeller as his favorite film, stating "I love movies with happy endings." This is later repeated in the animated 1991 special Garfield Gets a LifeGarfield Gets a Life is a 22-minute television cartoon special of the Garfield series.-Plot:Jon now recognizes that he needs a life, an escape from his boring existence as the guy who arranges his sock drawer. He tries to find some girls around town, but none of them are impressed, and they all...
, as well as in the 2004 GarfieldGarfield: The Movie, also known as Garfield, is a 2004 live-action movie based on the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield. In this movie, Garfield the cat was created with computer-generated imagery, though all other animals were real...
movie.
- In a Sunday Pearls Before Swine
Pearls before swine refers to a quotation from the discourse on holiness, a section of Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount, implying that things should not be put in front of people who don't appreciate their value....
comic strip, Zebra explains the end of "Old Yeller" to Pig, describing it as one of the saddest scenes ever filmed, and saying he couldn't imagine anyone not crying after seeing it. In the last panel, two crocs are sitting in a crowded theater yelling, "Eat da dog! Eat da dog!"