Although the CONNECTIONS link on IMDb does not say it, this is clearly a remake of "Captains Courageous"--the famous Spencer Tracy/Freddie Bartholomew film of the late 1930s. Now, Dean Stockwell plays the bratty rich kid and Joel McCrea takes Tracy's role as a friend and nursemaid (of sorts) to this kid. But, instead of being set at sea, this film is in the Old West--on the prairie. Instead of a fishing boat, the boy is taken on a cattle drive. When the brat is lost on a cross-country railroad trip, he is picked up by a group of cowboys. One takes the boy under his wing and shows him responsibility and kindness--things the boy truly needed to learn for himself. Because the basic story was so nice, this new film couldn't help but work as well--which it did, thanks to some excellent performances by Stockwell, McCrea and Chill Wills. Well worth watching--and nearly as entertaining as the original. This film's one advantage over the earlier film is McCrea's simple performance. Although Spencer Tracy won the Oscar for his performance, to me it was a bit broad in style.

By the way, the ending of "Cattle Drive" is very, very, very different from "Captains Courageous"--very!

Bratty Dean Stockwell is travelling on his father's railroad. When he falls off the train, he's rescued by Joel McCrea who gradually tames the boy.

Yes, it's CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS on the trail, with a fine cast, including Leon Ames as Stockwell's father, Chill Wills, Bob Steele, and even Harry Carey Jr. In a bit. McCrea, as usual, gives a fine performance, saying less than he knows. Stockwell is a bit annoying; I suspect someone showed him Freddy Bartholomew and the youngster tried to imitate him.

The best thing about this movie are the compositions of the cattle n the trail, shot by Maury Gertsman. Gertsman shows up as a camera operator in 1934, lit a few shorts in 1942, then moved onto B features. He peaked in the 1950s with Universal, but the downturn in programmers drove him to television work, where he lit the set on Lucille Ball's series. He died in 1999 at the age of 92.

On of the problems of looking at old westerns is the awful prints. B westerns were shot just as well as anything, but the prints were chopped up, worn out, and reduced to 16mm copies. Looking at a well struck copy like the one I saw is a revelation.

This a neat, colourful "Captains Courageous" variation, with veteran Joel McCrea and youngster Dean Stockwell combining really well. The moralising and the sentimentality are underplayed and the action is excitingly staged by underrated director Kurt Neumann (even if some of the 'wild horse' scenes are taken from an earlier Universal-International western - directed by George Sherman - called "Red Canyon"). All in all this 78 minute oater is well worth catching.