Thunderhead – Son of Flicka *** (1945, Roddy McDowall, Preston Foster, Rita Johnson, James Bell, Diana Hale) – Classic Movie Review 3464

Director Louis King’s cute 1945 sequel to 1943’s boy and horse story in the hit family feature My Friend Flicka happily sees much of the same cast returning from the original – Roddy McDowall, Preston Foster and Rita Johnson.

It  is another winsome, highly popular film for children, with rich Utah landscapes, gorgeous Technicolor cinematography by Charles G Clarke and obvious care in the handling of the cast, story and the horses.

In the simple but effective script based on the novel by Mary O’Hara, the beautiful white colt of the title, the son of his beloved Flicka, is trained by rancher Rob McLaughlin (Preston Foster)’s son Ken McLaughlin (Roddy McDowall) to be a champion race horse, to round up stray mares and to bring back stolen horses.

Also in the cast are Rita Johnson as Nelle McLaughlin, James Bell (back as Gus), Diana (Patti) Hale (back as Hildy), Carleton Young, Ralph Sanford, Robert Filmer and Alan Bridge.

It was the first feature to be photographed entirely on 35mm colour negative film.

McDowall loved Thunderhead but said Flicka was mean and kept stepping on his foot! His elder sister Virginia was Rita Johnson’s stand-in.

Next sequel: Green Grass of Wyoming (1948).

It was rebooted as Flicka (2006).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3464

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/