mark.waltz There are more than just two families in each mountain valley, and for two families to have a violent, open feud proves to be a tragedy to everybody. One family matriarch (Beaulah Bondi) desperately wants to see the feud end, giving birth to youngest son Spanky McFarland during a shoot-out. When a lumber company comes into the area, more violence is erupted thanks to a relationship that grows between pretty Sylvia Sidney and company foreman Fred MacMurray.Excellent color photography adds atmosphere to the outdoor settings, so beautifully captured here. Henry Fonda plays Sidney's other brother who turns to violence to protect what is his. Beaulah Bondi gives a quiet, wise performance that has her appearing to be actually older than her years. Fred Stone is her concerned husband, fighting a feud for reasons he isn't quite sure of. MacFarland proves himself to be quite a talented young actor. You may see his Our Gang character of Spanky there, but you sure won't feel he is that character.This is a tragic story of family pride taking over their souls as they loose each other thanks to a misguided hatred where revenge has no other effect than begetting more violence.

movie-viking The film, shot mostly outdoors, starts out a bit dated. (Sylvia Sydney and family come across slightly comic...) But then...one gets caught up in the real agony of these fictionalized Hatfield and McCoy families... They've feuded and murdered each others...for years. Beulah Bondi (the mom) is the visual barometer of this murderous situation. She, almost like an inner city mom of a teen male, expects the bullet which will take out her beloved family member (young Henry Fonda). SPOILER: Spanky McFarland is the charming little boy who is the center of attention...and his later death sparks the agonizing actions of the main characters.Recommended: Suitable for family viewing...for any film buffs of old time quality color movies---and for schools/homeschools where they wish to discuss a quality film about unforgiveness, unresolved hate, and the damage it does to later generations.

bkoganbing This sound version of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is actually the fourth and to date last version of this story. There were three silent films made from this novel by John Fox, Jr., including one done in 1916 by Cecil B. DeMille.It's the story of a couple of Appalachian Mountain families who've had a decades old feud in which no one can quite recall how it all got started, but they sure do remember the latest outrage by the other crowd. There's a great temptation to treat this all humorously and it certainly has been done, I can recall Abbott and Costello's Comin' Round the Mountain with the same plot premise. But whole people's and whole nations act this way, who are we to judge the Tollivers and Falins of this story.Sylvia Sidney and Henry Fonda are two Tolliver cousins, kissing cousins as they say in the mountains, distant enough to contemplate marriage. Into the picture comes railroad man Fred MacMurray who wants to build a railroad through the properties of both families. He interests Sylvia who starts to see that there is a whole world away from her family and their feud.Of course when her little brother is killed the whole ugly business starts up again and it leaves tragedy again in both families.The Trail of the Lonesome Pine has its place in film history as the first outdoor as opposed to studio film shot in three strip technicolor. Color which is now standard was a big gimmick back in the day and Paramount raked in good box office.Fuzzy Knight plays another rustic character, kind of a Tolliver satellite and he sings a couple of songs written for the film by Louis Alter and Sidney Mitchell, Twilight on the Trail and A Melody from the Sky. The latter got an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, losing to The Way You Look Tonight. The former however got a recording by Bing Crosby. This is a perfect example of the connection of film, and radio, and the recording industry. Bing was Paramount's number one box office attraction and the Paramount executives no doubt prevailed on him to record the song and sing it on his brand new Kraft Music Hall Radio Show in the interest of publicizing The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. Fred MacMurray and Sylvia Sidney were also with Paramount at the time and Henry Fonda was at that time under contract to producer Walter Wanger who filmed this story. Those were the days way before agents and stars being their own producers. Such cozy arrangements as these were more easily done then.This last to date version of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine probably is too old fashioned for a remake. Still I think today's audiences might still enjoy it.

JK-12 I saw this movie when I was 15 years old and never forgot it; I now have a copy of it and watch it often and enjoy it as much as when it first came out in 1936.