Alan Ladd's last decade of films were a fairly mediocre bunch but there were exceptions including this little gem. Well, it's not exactly a gem, it's just that's the sort of term used describe these little pictures. It's Ladd's attempt at the Old Yeller audience, the tale of a boy and his dog - the gimmick here is that the boy is mute and goes around the country with his dad looking for a cure.
The public didn't really take to this movie, most likely because Ladd's films weren't into boy and dog stories - and the boy and dog audience didn't really go to it either, most likely because the story is told from Ladd's POV (cf Old Yeller which is about Tommy Kirk). It's still a pretty good movie, though, with Alan Ladd giving a good performance at a time when he tended to phone them in, most likely because his real life son David plays his son here. (They have some lovely emotional scenes together). Olivia de Havilland puts in a decent effort, too, as the spinster whom the Ladds go to work for.
There's some effective moments such as David Ladd being picked on by bullies (beating up retards never fails to create a feeling of anger), and the dog getting beaten about (ditto). The action subplot feels a bit contrived - the villainous family, who beat up Ladd Snr and buy the dog of Ladd Jnr and end up having a shoot out with Ladd Snr, are too conveniently evil, without real motivation (they want de Havilland's land, which is boring but I'll go with it - but I don't believe they'd be so anti-the Ladds even if he is shown to be a former Confederate). Because the mute-ness is caused by psychological reasons, you know the cure will happen at some dramatically exciting time, and sure enough Davey gets his voice back just in time to stop dad from being shot. Oh, I know its corny, but it still works.
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