Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Have revisited an echo from the past tonight. (November 2016). First saw this b/w film in '49 or '50 when I was six years old, and it has stuck with me for ,,, a while. Yes, it's pretty hokey, but my Old Man identified with the mules and a life style that was obsolete, even in 1948 when it was produced. The script is grade-school, but charming and the acting is stilted, but typical for a B-movie. Over all, leaves you with a fondness for a world that no longer exists. Happily the DVD is from a technicolor print in pristine condition. I recognize the Old Mans hat as the same one Walter Brennan wears; Moms' Sunbeam Mix Master on the kitchen counter; and the tin document box where Walter keeps Snugs' Dads' Last Will and Testament, is the same box I kept my crayons in, and now keep my own documents -- including the Wills and Deeds. Amazing coincidences, which probably mean nothing to anyone but my self, listed here, for your own amusement... Enjoy the Movie.

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.

An enjoyable film dealing with a male Cinderella-like relationship. Fed up with his nagging wife and bullying son, a man heads out to sea and leaves his son $20.00 to fend for himself.The film is a gem as it shows the warm relationships that can develop with still another family and a man's determination to get those mules to work.Anne Revere appears briefly as the wicked wife but she is memorable once again. As her n'eer-do-well son, Bob Karnes, is miserable at his best. Lon McAllister shines as the step-son and Natalie Wood steals the show as a precocious youngster who always seems to be in the right place at the right time. Another good performance is given by Tom Tully as as a nasty neighbor, and Walter Brennan is in fine form as an understanding friend to the McAllister role.

One reviewer referred to this old film as "bucolic," a term we rarely encounter these days. I have to agree that the setting is rural and somewhat tame about a young man, Lon McCalliser, who prefers mules over Natalie Wood. Well, she was only 10 years old at the time and June Haver was the primary female interest as I recall. Crusty old crackly voiced Walter Brennan was the old mentor in the film and the story really doesn't stir a great deal of memories, except it was about muleskinners and back in those days (I was 11 at the time), that was enough romance for me.Not a a bad old film, if you come across it on the late show. But, definitely bucolic.