The Green Promise (1949) User Reviews

Natalie And Her Lambs

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 27 September 2009]

The Green Promise is a commercial for the 4-H clubs which despite the ever shrinking number of family farms there are still enough kids growing up on same to provide a spring of new members. But this film is a time capsule which shows some of the problems of rural life around 1949. A lot of those same problems exist today because the things that Mother Nature can throw at you when you make a living from the land don't change at all.

Walter Brennan plays a serious version of his later Grandpappy Amos McCoy role. He's the father of four children, the grownup Marguerite Chapman and youngsters Ted Donaldson, Connie Marshall and the youngest Natalie Wood. Brennan is old fashioned and stubborn and not willing to listen to advice about new agricultural methods. Especially when they come from smart alecky young county agent Robert Paige. Paige knows his stuff, but he's a bit too sure of himself to suit Brennan and Chapman in the romance department. Of course she comes around in every way.

The star here is young Natalie Wood and she plays the part like a young Margaret O'Brien. In fact when I tuned the film on I wasn't sure I wasn't watching Margaret O'Brien, the only clue that puzzled me was that Ted Donaldson was too old be an older brother for O'Brien. Young Natalie is sweet and engaging and I defy anyone not to empathize with her concern for her young black lambs whom she is raising as her 4-H project.

The kids from 4-H pitch in with helping hands (that is one of the four Hs after all) to save the farm from the elements and the stupidity of man which I won't go into. All in all they're wholesome All American kids and a real advertisement for the group.

And The Green Promise is also an advertisement for the 4-H clubs in the USA. It's a nice family film without great production values and Natalie Wood is exceptional.

Beautifully made, but emotionally puzzling and somewhat aloof...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 27 September 2009]

William D. Russell directs this rather unusual screenplay about a widower farmer and his four children of various ages, who live under their pig-headed father's thumb. Pretending to have a democracy in his family, the farmer--who always gets the last word--doesn't see that his stubborn ways of operating a home and a farm are not always the right ways, and he often comes close to alienating his children with his rigidly unsentimental attitude. Upon moving into their newest ranch house, eldest daughter Marguerite Chapman is wooed by the handsome, eligible local agriculturalist, yet she acts frigid and suspicious of men; we are to assume this is the way her papa raised her, but possibility a more vulnerable approach might have drawn us closer to the character. Natalie Wood is the talkative youngest child, and she pulls off some very difficult key sequences in the film with charm and poise (being voted down by her father when she desires buying two lambs, going to the bank and asking for a loan, and diligently taking her oath after being invited into the 4-H Club). The picture isn't a total success...and for a while there, I wasn't sure what Walter Brennan was trying for as the patriarch; at times he's so stern, he's almost villainous. However, the locations and silvery cinematography are perfect, and there's a dandy of a thunderstorm in which little Natalie finds herself caught. A genuine oddity from RKO, and worthwhile despite its flaws. **1/2 from ****

Tale of a pig-headed man....and his long-suffering kids.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 November 2015]

When I first started watching this film, I assumed it would be a schmaltzy family film. However, as it progressed, I realized it was the story about a nasty old man who dominated his family...and the attempt by some of them to break out from under his thumb. I do think many WILL see it as a family film but with me being a father, I sure wanted to bust this guy in the nose!

Mr. Matthews (Walter Brennan) and his children arrive in town and they buy a farm. One of their neighbors is David Barkley (Robert Paige) and he's a college educated agricultural agent. But Matthews is a stubborn old guy and refuses to listen to Barkley--choosing to use his old tried and true methods. Likewise, he doesn't listen to his children but dominates them. He pretends everyone in the family gets a say but uses emotional blackmail to get his way every time. When Matthews is badly hurt and his children have to run the farm, the oldest, Deborah (Marguerite Chapman) decides to loosen up the reins and try new methods. When her father eventually learns of this, he tries to sabotage her efforts--all to prove he was right after all.

One of the beneficiaries of Dad's injury is little Susan (Natalie Wood). She's wanted to raise lambs and join 4-H but he vetoed this because...well...because he could! Now with Dad laid up in bed, Susan tries to prove she can raise sheep on her own.

Fortunately, everything works out by the end of the film....and I stopped hating Matthews! It is a nice little film...just try to ignore Matthews' boorishness that occasionally rears its ugly head. Also, try to ignore the kid in the Aunt Jemima costume at the party! My how times have changed!

Charming and Still Relevant

[dougdoepke · 16 November 2009]

Charming little farm family drama, made more so by Wood's incandescent performance. Her emotions from joy to alarm are so infectious, it's hard not to be moved. That scene of acceptance into 4H is a little marvel of the kind of uninhibited joy that somehow gets lost on the way to adulthood. True, at times she's a little much, yet it's hard not to believe she's actually feeling what she's conveying, sort of an untutored version of the Stanislavski method, at least as I understand it. I also like Marguerite Chapman's unsmiling farm girl. She's certainly a long way from the expected eye-batting coquette when handsome David Barkley (Paige) comes calling. There's a feeling that the responsibilities of surrogate motherhood are making her old beyond her years. It's an unusually realistic, if rather dour, performance.

Despite the warm family overtones, the script is far from sappy. Catch how Dad (Brennan) manipulates the family's democratic process. He wants the image of democratic equality at the same time he works it for his own advantage. There's a larger lesson here that remains topical for our own time. Also, note how Dad opts for short-term financial advantage over longer-term conservation by cutting down the hillside trees. Those roots provide long-term flood protection, but don't provide the immediate cash he needs. Thus, his motives are understandable, yet when rain comes, calamity results. We continue to be confronted by the environmental issue of short-term advantage versus long-term security; at the same time, the screenplay raises this concern long before its like became a national issue.

The values here may be conservative, but they're hardly hidebound. Catch Rev. Benton's (Stone) Sunday morning sermon. It's really a recognition of the importance of science as both a source of knowledge and a potential benefit to our lives. The message is also a long way from the type of dogmatic conservatism that sees the Bible as the last word on either worldly wisdom or natural history. Then too, the values of 4H and the family farm are as relevant now as they were then, perhaps more so now that the hard lessons of industrial farming have entered our food supply. My general point is that the movie may be dated in some ways, but the screenplay remains an intelligent one even 60 years later.

Unfortunately, the version I last saw (on TMC) was edited and failed to include the now notorious bridge scene referred to by other reviewers. It also failed to include at least one other important scene I recall from an earlier version. So viewers should be alert to edited versions. Nonetheless, the movie is generally under-rated and combines both solid entertainment values with a well thought out message that makes for very worthwhile viewing.

Wood had an IQ of close to 200 and it shows!

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 31 October 2020]

The key to the movie is given by the minister who tells the congregation that Mosis would lead his people to the land of milk and honey (and the green pastures) ,provided that they helped themselves : today's Mosis are the scientist who are here to lend a helping hand: gone is the old agriculture,no it's a science , and the engineers are here ,so put your trust on them !That was daddy's mistake ,he who who would not hear of it .

But his children are not prepared to accept it : if big sister is cardboard ,and her love affair as derivative as can be,little sister Natalie (Wood) steals the show : you shoud hear speak to the banker , explain to a man who is four times her age ,why lambs breeding is economically important ;it's not only a movie: later on, in Suzanne Finstad's absorbing biography "Natasha "one reads : her friend Jimmy had a report on an entire agriculture book to do :she grabbed the book ,and the next morning,the job was done and was given an A+!

Wood outshines everybody in the movie : one of the rare child actors who grew up to become a mature gifted actress:too bad she disappeared at such an early age!

This promise can appeal to the whole family ; the 4H club (and the meaning of the initials) and the final storm are pretty original in a familiar family story.

Unremarkable film with a nice child actress performance from Natalie Wood...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 27 September 2009]

A harmless little film from the mid-'40s without a fresh point of view or virtually any originality. Competent performances can't atone for the dullness of the plot and direction.

NATALIE WOOD shines as a sensitive young tomboy who's always quarreling with sister CONNIE MARSHALL and keeps her eye on the romance brewing between older sister MARGUERITE CHAPMAN and a neighbor farmer ROBERT PAIGE.

WALTER BRENNAN is the farming father who's reluctant to listen to good advice from Paige about the possibility of his farm in danger of flooding due to a structural fault from a nearby hill of trees.

There's a low-budget look to the B&W photography of the sort of family film that would have registered more strongly in Technicolor. A string of incidents of no particular consequence make for a weak plot that never manages to be compelling enough to sustain interest in its rural background and cardboard characters.

Only toward the end, during a bad thunderstorm, does the film achieve any sort of visual awakening. Ironically, it was during filming of the storm scene that Natalie accidentally fell into the water and got the scare of her young life--an ironic prediction of how her real life would end so tragically.

ROBERT PAIGE and MARGUERITE CHAPMAN can't manage to be anything but bland as the leads, but Natalie Wood's fans should enjoy her performance. WALTER BRENNAN does his standard grumpy old man act.

Interesting film, without great expectatives.

[jangelcm · 6/10 · 19 August 2000]

It´s an interesting film about a farmer a his family (son and daughters). The man don´t see how important is to evolucionate with the changing times. This is not the best film ever made, but it´s good enough to enjoy with it. If you like these kind of films (no murders, no sex), you´ll like it. The only thing I don´t like about this film is that I think Walter Brennan wasn´t as great as he usually is.

The Green Promise

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 4 January 2023]

Walter Brennan and his four children move onto a new farm in the small town of "Millwood". He is stubborn, has his ways of doing things and despite advice from the local land agent "Barkley" (Robert Paige) he ploughs on regardless of the warnings that his methods could cause soil erosion with dangerous consequences. It's only when he has an arboreal incident that breaks his leg, and he becomes bedridden that his children - led by the eldest "Debbie" (Marguerite Chapman) take things in hand. She is a bit soft on Paige and soon manages to combine some more efficient farm management techniques with a little romance - much to the chagrin of her "my way or no way" papa. Meantime, younger sibling "Susan" (Natalie Wood) has some industrial plans of her own - she (aged 11 in this) decides to chip in to their economy by borrowing 75 dollars from the local co-op bank and rearing two hardy lambs... It is Wood's performance that really steals this. Though at times a bit over-enthusiastic with her efforts, she delivers an engaging and human performance that belies her youth and inexperience. Her tit-for-tat battles with elder sister "Abigail" (Connie Marshall) are quite fun, and to be honest I felt really quite sorry for the lone brother in all of this mayhem "Buzz" (Robert Ellis). The story is simple, one of rural folks trying to make ends meet in tough times; facing new challenges - personal and professional - and Brennan and Wood keep it from clogging with too much sentiment well, with an epic storm sequence at the end that is really well staged and menacing, too!

Simply Charming

[krishkmenon · 9/10 · 4 April 2011]

Though this may not be one of the best movies of its time it certainly warms your heart. The plot is that of a widower with four children who seek to set up a farm using their last resources and the tribulations that follow. Walter Brennen plays to the hilt the autocratic father who professes to be democratic in all his decisions but has his own way by being overtly manipulative. Margurite Chapman plays the eldest daughter who surrogates for her mother to the siblings. She is torn emotionally behind a traditional approach emotionally and professionally as demanded by her father against the more scientific farming methods and modern values as professed by her knight in armour the Agriculturist Officer. The other two kids just play to stereotype as the nasty sister and the adolescent brother who is terrified by his father. It is Susan, beautifully played by a nine year old Natalie Wood who is the real star of this film. Her presence forces you to forget the weaker points of the film as you emote silently with her both in her pains and her happiness. The scenes where she bursts to tears as she is unable to agree to join a club as her father has forbiden it and the classic scene where she argues her case for a loan to a crusty banker (who incidentally has to cover up a smile) is great. The storyline may be weak but the acting is good and the picturisation of the storm sequences which include the heroic rescue of two lambs by Susan (allegedly which gave Natalie Wood a lifetime fear of drowning)is excellent. A great film to view with your family as it warms you up with thoughts of a long by-gone era.

This is NOT "The Real McCoys"!

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 7 November 2016]

I liked this film. Yes, it's a very sentimental view of 1940's-1950s America, and was sort of an advertisement for 4-H Clubs. But I thought the basic story was a good one and the acting was pretty decent. Is it a great film? No. But it is quite good.

A widower farmer (Walter Brennan) is a bit of a bully in his own family who is moving to a new area to start a new farm. His kids can never do the things they want to because he controls what he calls "family meetings". And he is too stubborn to listen to recommendations of the local agricultural agent...and that agent falls in love with the farmer's oldest daughter. The farmer clearcuts lumber from a hilltop right near his farm, and disaster strikes twice -- first temporarily crippling him, and then with a flood which washes away much of their crops.

When I first began watching the film, I thought it was going to be something like Walter Brennan's television series "The Real McCoys". But that was a comedy, and this is no comedy. The question is -- will, or how will the family survive a stubborn and rather mean-spirited old man.

Walter Brennan is good here, although if you like that likable Walter Brennan...well, you're going to be disappointed. The main younger daughter is Natalie Wood, and she's quite impressive here. The main older daughter is Marguerite Chapman, who does reasonably well. Her love interest is Robert Paige, who was also co-producer; I rather liked him.

While this won't end up on my DVD shelf, it's well worth watching.

For Natalie Wood Fans Only

[Chance2000esl · 5/10 · 22 April 2007]

This movie seems like one of those 'family on a farm' B-movies so common in the forties and fifties, about a little girl (or boy) with a horse, a dog, or in this case, baby lambs. It starts off as if it's a promotional film for joining the 4-H, but it gets better towards the end.

It stands out for two reasons: 1) the real star is Natalie Wood, who must have been about ten, and is totally convincing when she repeats the 4-H oath (oh, the nostalgia for the lost innocence of that era!) and 2) the ecological disaster that climaxes the film, with Natalie Wood again doing a great job in an exciting sequence as she fights her way home during a savage rainstorm and saves herself from drowning in the storm's raging waters. (She permanently injured her wrist in this sequence.)

A teenage Martin Milner(uncredited) appears briefly in the 4-H club meeting scene and warns us of ecological peril. Milburn Stone as the preacher is appropriately didactic in spelling out the message of the film.

I'll give it a 5.

Natalie Wood is a scene stealer!

[Sylviastel · 8/10 · 19 May 2014]

This film is about a widower and farmer, Mr Matthews, played well by Walter Brennan. He buys a farm and moves with four children. His oldest daughter, Deborah, is more of a mother figure in the house. She is well played by Marguerite Chapman. Natalie Wood plays younger sister, Susan. There is brother Phinneus and sister Abigail. Mr Matthews is a stubborn old man who refuses to learn new things or keep up with the times. When he is injured, Deborah takes charge and make changes. Wood's Susan joins the 4 H Club and raises two lambs for a ribbon at a fair. Susan risks her life to save them. The film is fine with decent performances all around. The ending could have been better though. The film is worth watching at least once. There are some light moments. This film is a fine melodrama overall.

Interesting journey into rural America

[david-1976 · 5/10 · 27 September 2009]

The Green Promise is now remembered largely because the guys at RKO built a footbridge across a fake stream: the bridge collapsed too soon, Natalie fell into the water, broke her wrist, and was afraid of water ever after.

The movie itself is obviously intended to endorse the activities of 4-H, the activities of which continue to be laudable in many ways. I have had students at the college where I teach who have spent their youth as 4-H'ers and have had a great experience.

Walter Brennan is playing Walter Brennan as Amos McCoy in this outing, about 7 years before that series. It's a rather flat performance. The other stars are pretty much who we expect them to be; Milburn Stone is "Doc" a couple of years before "Gunsmoke" made its TV debut. (Was he "Doc" on the radio? I don't know.) Natalie Wood turns in a fine performance here... as Margaret O'Brien. It's interesting to watch; even more interesting to hear. Away from the TV, I actually thought it was Margaret--the most incredible, most uncanny child star ever, whose subsequent career was... negligible.

Some have suggested that this film has some sort of "conservative" agenda, but I am not so sure. It seems to me that the film's agrarian message was and is pertinent to an ideal of American rural life that has often been dismissed by more sophisticated critics. Had the script been written by a blacklisted screenwriter, it would probably be hailed as a masterpiece of populist cinema, like "The Plow That Broke the Plains" or "The Grapes of Wrath," but since it seems to be more typical of rural (Republican) America, it is dismissed.

Yes, this is a didactic film, and one that probably furthers the argument that the mimetic is more powerful that the didactic in theatre, but as an example of "instructive" film--like, as has been suggested, those movies that children who grew up in the fifties and sixties watched in the classroom, it is pretty darn convincing, and a paradigm for the genre. At the same time, when compared to masterpieces like "The Red Star" it--oh golly!--is probably of as much merit.

A heartfelt, rare movie for the family

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 16 August 2016]

Here is another rare movie I have found on YouTube and loved. As a woman living on a farm, it's another reason I love this movie, being that it's about a widower, Matthews by last name, and his four children trying to put a farm together. But of course Mr. Matthews wouldn't listen to advice from neighbors. That is all I know, folks.

You know, I do admit Matthews was an a**hole through the beginning and middle of the movie. But to me, with Deborah's (the eldest daughter's)...snarky attitude (?) at the beginning, I thought she didn't want to live on the farm; of course, I was wrong. So anyway, I thought this film was a heartfelt, rare movie for the family to see, and that is all I have to say.

Time capsule of the conservative American spirit.

[SanDiego · 7 July 2002]

Entertaining piece about a stubborn widowed farmer and his children (two girls, one boy and one grown woman) who buys a farm and ignores good advice of how to operate it. Natalie Wood plays youngest child Susan who wants to join the 4-H club and raise lambs. She is inspired by young neighbor Buzz who's success in raising cattle has allowed him to save enough money for college. Walter Brennan plays the father who shames her into thinking that she is selfish to want to achieve individual success outside of the family collective. Natalie gives her usual charming and polished performance and holds the weaker parts of the film together. At times her style is a bit melodramatic, but the film is played so low-keyed, that her over-the-top emotions (a trademark) liven things up. No doubt about it, she is the star of the film. Marguerite Chapman plays the grown child, Deborah Matthews, who is afraid to date the handsome land agent because her father expects her to work the farm and not have a life of her own. She does have some grit and stands up to her father from time to time. The Green Promise is a biblical reference that is delivered nicely by Reverend Benton (Milburn Stone) and drives home the film's themes of putting pride aside and allowing others and themselves to achieve their individual potential. There are scenes of the kids fishing on a fallen tree trunk that are reminiscent of Norman Rockwell and in fact the entire film, written by Monte Collins, is more of a time capsule of the conservative American spirit of that period. It's the type of film Walt Disney made with larger budgets and in color (SO DEAR TO MY HEART, FOLLOW ME BOYS), but the limits of black-and-white film gives it a dust-bowl feel a little inappropriate to the story and setting. Hollywood was filled with Communist themes from such writers as Dalton Trumbo (who penned the similar OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES) so it's interesting to see such a film for contrast. Far from a classic, fans of Natalie Wood, the 4-H club, and films of this type will find it of interest.

The Green Promise Predicted Natalie Wood's Death Thirty-two Years Later

[lisa195719082 · 1/10 · 15 April 2012]

Back in the late 80's, I saw a show about the life of Natalie Wood on PBS. In it, they showed the scene where she had to cross the bridge during a terrible, hurricane-like, and apocolyptic thunderstorm at night. When Turner Classic Movies aired this last July 20, on what would have been her 73rd birthday, I finally learned that this was the movie where she developed her lifelong fear of water: a fear that took her life thirty-two years later.

In the movie, while she and her brother Phinny were at a Four H Club party at the home of the Wexfords, this terrible storm hits. Because it was too dangerous, Mr. and Mrs. Wexford allowed the children to stay there overnight. Susan Matthews (Natalie Wood's character in the movie), who wore a bunny suit to the party, tells her brother Phinny that they couldn't stay there, and that they needed to get home. She was worried about what would happen to her lambs. With the storm still raging, she leaves the Wexfords and heads for home.

When she got to the bridge, it collapsed. She fell into the raging water. She injured her left wrist, and she nearly drowned. But she made it across the bridge. Despite the storm, she finally made it home and she rescued her lambs. This scene not only traumatized her, she developed a lifelong fear of water: a fear that would take her life thirty-two years later, when she fell into the water off of Catalina Island and she drowned.

The studio should have been sued for negligence back then! I can't believe that they made this poor young girl do such a dangerous scene!

"The Green Promise" was the main contributor to a real life tragedy!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 18 December 2017]

An extra on the superb St Clair Vision disc for Rain (1932, is the very interesting The Green Promise (1949). Ostensibly, a fulsome plug for the 4-H movement, full of "light" and rigorously color-bonded youth and innocence, the movie turns incredibly nasty (both on screen and in real life) in its last ten minutes or so in an outrageously realistic storm sequence in which a bridge really collapsed under young Natalie Wood.

Natalie just managed to hang on to the debris, despite braking her wrist in the fall. In fact, her wrist was not only permanently weakened, but somewhat unsightly. She hid the permanently swollen bump by always wearing a bangle.

The wrist itself had virtually no power left in it at all, and I have no doubt that this was the main contributor to her sad death from drowning when, much later, she fell off a yacht she shared with her husband, Robert Wagner, while trying to board the dingy roped alongside.

A terrible tragedy! Natalie was a fine lady. Everyone in Hollywood loved her!

"Class, today we'll watch a film. Pay attention, there will be a quiz."

[b-roll · 11 January 2002]

It reminded me of those 16mm films we were shown in grade school--this one on the benefits of land conservation and belonging to the 4-H Club. Actually, it was sort of disturbing. Walter Brennan plays an overbearing, out-of-date father to three daughters who fear him---going out of his way to alienate those who would help him. Unfortunately, the arc of his character is more like a straight line with a sharp hook at the end, as he sees the error of his ways in the last 60 seconds of the film. A plus was seeing young Natalie Wood 2 years past her "Miracle on 34th Street" work. Points up what a difference a good story and direction can make. Both Brennan and Wood were ill-used in this filmstrip with sound.

The Green Promise

[a_baron · 3/10 · 6 October 2016]

This film has been called a thinly veiled advertisement for 4-H. If you haven't heard of it, it was started in Ohio as a local club but is now an international organisation, kind of like the Boy Scouts but with a heavy emphasis on farming. It would have been better if "The Green Promise" had been made as an outright propaganda document because it has nothing else to offer: no murders, no action worthy of the name, not even a real love interest in a film that is only a sham drama with no real trace of comedy. Instead we see the patriarch lording it over his motherless kids while trying to give them the impression that decisions within the family are made democratically. Since when was a family a democracy, and what kind of idiot would even consider giving an eleven year old the vote?

Naturally, he comes a cropper, but with a little help from the local 4-H rep, he sees the error of his ways, and although lover boy doesn't get to take the eldest daughter to bed, they all live happily ever after. So touching. Not.

A Rare Treasure

[urthmothr · 2 November 2002]

I found this at a 4-H Agents Conference...I had never seen it before, possibly because I've always lived in urban areas. I'm such a fan of Wood and Brennan, I took a chance buying it. It shows how 4-H members were able to teach their parents better farming practices. I agree with other reviewers that it could be better... sometimes the logic fails me, but more character development would make a longer film.

The copy I have is very gritty, I'd like to see it re-mastered.

-Earth Mother

A Profound and Mysterious Film

[piersplowman · 13 November 2008]

Like Solomon before him, Christ was a close observer of the world of sunlight and meadow. He used each flower and each blade of grass to draw the eye of man from earth to Heaven, towards the doctrines of His kingdom. If an idea was remote and obscure, He would show His listeners a picture from their daily lives. Galilee being both a garden spot and a place of many farms, He illustrated His deepest teachings with scenes of wheat fields, vineyards, and threshing floors. And sometimes He used paradoxes. How does a man gain his life if he loses it? How does a seed live only if it falls to the ground and dies? Thus it is that the movie "The Green Promise," a simple tale about life on a farm, raises the deepest questions about life. The movie tells the story of a stubborn old farmer, played by Walter Brennan, who moves from the Dust Bowl to a farm bursting with potential. But he disregards sensible advice on how to work the land. All his efforts come to naught, and his farm is ruined.

As he plows and sows and gathers in his hay, his youngest daughter seeks self-expression through her love of God's creation. Her loving young heart desires two newborn lambs she saw in a livestock catalog. But no matter how much she pleads, her stingy father keeps the lambs out of reach until the very end.

There is another source of trouble, and that is sin. On Sunday, the family hears the preacher condemn a new kind of sin - the sin of those who stubbornly cling to outmoded ways of farming. Such men, the preacher says, will be denied the Green Promise, the joy of entering into the Land of Milk and Honey.

And true to the preacher's prediction, the farm is destroyed. A tide of angry water rolls down off the mountain like Noah's flood, and all is swept away in a raging torrent.

If the story ended here, we would have a powerful tale about the power of sin to destroy the land, and the power of love to heal it. But then the movie broadens into a meditation on destiny and divine providence.

The character of the youngest daughter, the keeper of the lambs, is played by Natalie Wood. In her effort to save the poor creatures, she rushes home through a brutal lightning storm. Halfway across a stream, a foot bridge collapses, plunging her into the water. The scene is harrowingly realistic, and painful to watch, because it is real.

The prop men who built the tiny, creaking foot bridge, designed it to collapse after young Natalie crossed over. But the churning water weakened the structure, snapped the wood, and tossed the terrified young girl into the water. She held on bravely to the broken bridge while the director kept filming.

For the remainder of her life, Natalie Wood would have a fear of drowning. At the age of 43, after a drinking binge, she fell off her boat near Santa Catalina Island. Just as in the movie, she held on for many minutes. Then exhausted, she slipped beneath the rolling waves and drowned.

How strange, then, that "Green Promise" was also entitled "Raging Waters." The movie raises many unsettling questions. Does God know our ultimate end? Was divine providence at work in the life of Natalie Wood? If we disobey God's laws, will God withhold "The Green Promise?" Clearly, a simple movie about life on a farm contains a fascinating and somewhat uncanny message.

A Bit Out Of Joint

[aimless-46 · 31 March 2021]

If you have watched "The Green Promise" and found it rather strange, you can blame MGM for altering the story. It was one of those fluid script situations where the rewrites could not entirely keep pace with the production, leaving it to post-production to paste over the inconsistencies as much as possible. But it was not possible to sand down all the clues to the original story.

MGM wanted a vehicle to feature rising star Natalie Wood. To insert her they gave her Connie Marshall's original Abigail role which had centered on the coming of age story of a teenage girl who slowly comes to realize the huge character flaws of her idealized father. 15 year-old Buzz Wexford was to be her love interest. They awkwardly shoehorned the ten year-old Wood into the role and named her Susan. Making her Abigail's younger sister, Marshall was relegated to a demon seed middle child and the father's one dimensional ally. And with that the film lost any trace of nuance, in it's place you get a creepy story of a 15 year-old boy flirting with a 10 year-old girl.

Since the original New Deal theme of collectiveness had now became a Cold War political issue it was replaced by "individualism", which was entirely out of joint with its 4H promotional purpose although they did manage to go out with a collectivist response to the natural disaster. Ironically the awkwardly inserted rants about the virtues of individualism are contradicted on the screen by the self-destructive individualistic and imperious behavior of the father.

So you have a naturally likable Connie Marshall finally getting a chance to play against type which she does almost as well as Bonita Granville in "These Three", assisted by an incredibly unflattering hairstyle. And you have a naturally likable Walter Brennen, miscast and unsuccessfully playing against type. And finally Marguerite Chapman and Robert Paige playing the courtship of Ward and June Cleaver.

Wood carries the film, which was the intention of the studio, the role was constructed entirely in the service of promoting her. It is arguably her best performance and certainly the most demanding role of her career. The film works as a good time capsule and as a promo for the 4H Club.

Ironies of life

[atomicseasoning · 1 March 2004]

Perhaps if Natalie hadn't broken her wrist, (which wasn't set right and thus left her with a weakened wrist & a bone protrusion) while making this movie, then maybe 32 years later she would've had enough strength to pull herself into the lifeboat on that fateful night in Nov. 1981... Still though it looks like a good movie in a way, and Natalie looked cute in her bunny suit. She was such a cute little girl in so many films. Also it's interesting seeing Walter Brennan in something other that just the old TV show "The Real McCoys." I'll have to see if I can find it again sometime so that I can see all of it again. I'm sure that it is a good rural themed movie to see.