Cattle Drive

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.

Attractive Western with only a couple of shots , emotion and no blood-letting .Entertaining Western that seems to be a peculiar version to classic Captains Courageous by Víctor Fleming with Spencer Tracy . Concerns a lost boy : Dean Stockwell who missed himself at desert from the train of his father : Leon Ames . Then, a cowboy : Joel McCrea , meets the spoiled kid and he teaches him about cattle driving and to track down wild horses . Both of whom attempt to chase and tame a brave Mustang .The Story of the Grat Santa Fé Stampede¡

Nice and film with thrills , cattle drive and stimulating outdoors. Plenty of esplendor and animal fury , but no shootouts , only cattle drive and usual stampedes .This is a kind of alfresco charming tale , a refreshingly different movie , paying tribute to Joel McCrea and Víctor Fleming's Captains courageous .Here shows up a lot of wildlife with impressive Mustangs running across countries and mountains . These scenes about horses were later reused for other movies as Black Horse Canyon 1954 , this Cattle Drive and Fury series .

The picture was well starred by Joel McCrea as the expert cowboy , a world-wise person and wanna-be rancher . McCrea was a B actor , though he ocassionally played A films as Sullivan's Travels , The Most Dangerous Game , and Sam Peckinpah's Ride in High Sierra . Joel performed a lot of Westerns , as his interpretations are ideally suited for this genre , such as : Union Pacific , Buffalo Bill , The Virginian , Ramrod , South of Saint Louis , Four faces of the West , The Oklahoman . He is well accompanied by the always sympathetic and incombustible Chill Wills , Leon Ames as the wealthy railroad owner , Howard Petrie , Bob Steele , Harry Carey Jr , and the usually baddie Henry Brandon . And , of course , the prodigy child Dean Stockwell to follow a very long career as cinema as TV . The flick packs a luxurious , brilliant cinematography by Maury Gertsman and was well directed by Kurt Newman . Rating :6.5/10 . Worthwhile Watching .

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!

I was about 11 years old when my parents took me to the Fox Theater in Inglewood, California to see this film. It just so happened that Dean Stockwell was appearing in person before the film and was answering questions from the audience. He was very shy and an adult male did most of the answering. I remember loving this film - perhaps because the star was present - as a western adventure involving a big locomotive. I remember the relationship between the father, looking for the boy, and the son as being more realistic than I had seen in films. By this age I was a veteran film-goer, seeing my first film, a Walt Disney film, at age of six. I gotta get a copy of this film to re-live it.

The lost genre being the good, challenging family/children's movie.

There were many series Westerns, and later TV variants like Cisco and Hoppy, but "Cattle Drive" is a lovely example of a cinema Western movie for kids but also to be enjoyed by the family. Shortish but with barely a false or draggy moment.

From the reviews already logged, it's obviously warmly remembered by those who saw it as children when it first came out.

Here in the UK it has been shown several times in the last few years and, as I write (March 2012) it's getting consecutive airings on a free to view digital channel.

No surprise: it's a terrific little film, one of two or three in similar vein that McCrea made around that time.

Joel McCrea obviously had an affinity with children, but, then again, wasn't he just a marvellous actor in whatever he did?

To the many points mentioned by the reviewers I would add another-the wonderful music.