The Yearling

Life abounds in the 1870s Florida scrubland that's home to young Jody Baxter. There are bears to hunt, cash crops to plant, evenings of storytelling with Pa and Ma. And there are timeless lessons of love and letting go that Jody learns from Flag, the orphaned pet fawn that follows him around with devotion. From Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, and sensitively directed by Clarence Brown (National Velvet), The Yearling is superb family entertainment that knows well what a shiny harmonica means to a lonely boy or what a six-day rain means to hard-luck farmers. Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and Claude Jarman, Jr. play the Baxters in a resplendent film nominated for seven Academy Awards and the winner of two, plus a Special Award for the year's Outstanding Child Actor to young Jarman.