The Proud Rebel Details

Alan Ladd's finest achievement from the years following Shane carries echoes of that film, particularly in the prominence of a small boy. Ladd plays father to his own son, David, who's mute since witnessing his mother's death in the Civil War. It's about the search for a cure, the boy's beloved dog, Olivia de Havilland's kindly spinster farmer, and an evil brood of sheepherders that includes a young Harry Dean Stanton. Exquisitely photographed in burnished Technicolor, beautifully acted (with no-nonsense performances by Cecil Kellaway and Henry Hull) and directed with quiet mastery by Michael Curtiz, it's that rare breed of family film which should entrance kids and adults alike.

Pretty dim family Western for pretty dim families; everything happens precisely according to plan.