Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!
NR | 10 March 1948 (USA)
Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Trailers

Light-hearted, old-style romance about a farm-hand who arranges to buy a pair of mules from his employer. No one is able to handle the mules and he must train them. Adding to his dilemma, he pursues his boss's daughter who gets her kicks out of keeping him guessing about her true feelings. Of course, at the end he tames both the mules and the girl.

Reviews
Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
bkoganbing This rustic film, something not usually made by 20th Century Fox has come down in screen legend as the debut of Marilyn Monroe. She's very briefly seen paddling a canoe after church. As it turns out she's not the only tragic legend in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! Natalie Wood who plays June Haver's little sister and a little miss fixit is also here.Young Lon McCallister quits his home and hearth leaving it to mean stepmother Anne Revere and her lugnut of a son Robert Karnes. Almost on a whim he buys a pair of mules who won't work for anyone else but him. Still he's in debt to miserly Tom Tully for them. And Tully is not a man to give anyone a break even with daughter June Haver falling for McCallister.The man who teaches McCallister about how to work and the dignity of the mule is Walter Brennan playing another of his rustic old timers with lots of wisdom. He also has a nice taste for booze which nearly costs McCallister his mules.Except for the Francis series, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! is the only film I know that's about mules. And McCallister's two don't have quite the talents that Francis had. Incidentally the title is what Walter Brennan teaches McCallister to say if he wants his mules to give that 110%.McCallister and Haver make a nice young couple. Not the greatest of films but a worthy debut for a legend.
klbird-1 The movie was premiered in Sedalia, Missouri,on a snowy March 10, 1948, not Sedalia Kansas as listed. The only other town with the name Sedalia is in Colorado! Sedalia held a parade in honor of the visiting stars Lon McCallister, Collene Townsend, Luanne Hogan, and Betty Ann Lynn, The premier is still talked about by old timers who marched in it and viewed the movie. While it was the only movie premiered in Sedalia, the city gained further fame as the end of trail town in the TV series RAWHIDE in the 1960s. RAWHIDE gave Clint Eastwood his career start and he even visited Sedalia in January 1959 to promote the program. Sedalia is celebrating it's 150 Anniversary in 2010, and Clint Eastwood is being invited back to participate in a Eastwood Film Festival. The area around Sedalia was famous for breeding high quality MISSOURI MULES, thus the reason for the selection of Sedalia for the premier.
Michael First, the good news; this isn't a Red Skelton comedy, as one might fairly presume on the basis of its dismally uningratiating title.Second, the bad news (which turns out not really so bad after all), it's actually just another 40s Fox B-movie horsey drama.Thirdly, the factual news. Yes, this IS Marilyn Monroe's first screen performance with dialogue, albeit in this print consisting of a salute of "Hi!" to June Haver over and done with before the retina has any chance to pass muster over the event. Speculation and debate still seems to rage over whether or not alternate versions of this film, featuring alternate MM footage, exist (chiefly some business in a canoe, which certainly I did not see in this particular print).Lastly, the reality of the film itself and revelation of the title mystery. Homesteader half-brothers bicker tiresomely over mule raising and racing - yes, MULES. The title refers to the human call used to rouse them into action; but against the odds this is far from as asininely scripted as that synopsis would lead you to expect.Not that that is to concede much, but it must be remarked upon that the Technicolor production is endearingly mounted by Ernest Palmer (slumming inbetween 'big' projects), with verdance particularly resplendent in the farming sequences. On the thespian front, Revere does her Fox-standby bit as a resilient matriarch (despite being only in her mid 40s), in addition to 9-year-old Natalie Wood; churning out sarcastic aphorisms almost worthy of WC Fields, but totally unsmackable due to the precocious sagacity of her delivery.
manemu No special effects, no musical numbers, no dance numbers, but a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. The plot was predictable but acting was adequate and mostly realistic. Maybe not realistic results, but plot reinforced the attitude that hard work and honesty pay off in long run. Kindness to animals is nice sideline touch.