Utterly charming romance-comedy. Young, divorced mother Emma (Fields) buys run-down ranch turning it into a horse barn and training corral. With only her adolescent son to help, she's having a rough go of it. Aging town druggist Murphy (Garner) strikes up a friendship, but age difference keeps them apart. Still, the personality attraction is there. Then, out of nowhere, her no-goodnik ex (Kerwin) shows up wanting to move in. Emma is on guard, but he is the boy's father. So how will things work out in the hardscrabble Southwestern setting.
The petite Fields is utterly winning as the gritty Emma. If you can buy her restoring and maintaining a ranch house and grounds pretty much by herself then the rest is easy. Garner, of course, is Garner, but with a little more edge than usual. There's no Maverick here (except for the poker game), still the natural charm surfaces when needed. It's a rather laid-back screenplay, in no hurry to get where it's going. But the dialog is superbly calibrated, the humor more subtle than snappy or obvious. Also, small town atmosphere is well integrated into events, especially the community dance with its ordinary-looking people. And scope out that hay bale contest, seeing who can roll a hay bale fastest. And catch Charles Lane as the cranky old man. Here he's already 80, and lived to 102!—with a career that started in 1930.
This is really Fields' film. You can't help rooting for her small winsome woman against such big odds. But it's hard to imagine anyone else in either of the two leads. All in all, the film's a fine character study with comedic overtones and should not be missed.
