Natalie Wood proving 4-H is a good thing

THE GREEN PROMISE (1949)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 As with most of the films in her career, Natalie Wood stands out. In "The Green Promise," she is the youngest, wide-eyed daughter who wants to have lambs on the farm. She is so eager, so enthused, so full of joy over the prospect that you just want to give her the precious lambs because you know they are in good hands. "The Green Promise" is a charming, inoffensive if slightly undernourished tale yet it is Natalie who lends the film its humanity.

Walter Brennan is Matthews, the stubborn widowed patriarch of the family who doesn't know when he has a good thing going. The family has just sold off their last farm and now he's got a new one to tend to. Matthews has a son and three daughters, the eldest of the bunch being Deborah (Marguerite Chapman) who has to maintain the house. Matthews wants to run the farm his way, desiring no help from a perfectly pleasant agricultural county agent, David Barkley (Robert Paige). Of course, David has got his eye on Deborah. Meanwhile, the youngest of Matthews's daughters, Susan Anastasia Matthews (Natalie Wood), has her eye on getting two lambs (something which her father rejects). After her father gets sick leaving Deborah to run the farm herself, the resourceful Susan secures a bank loan and buys the lambs!

"The Green Promise" is not only perceptive of the rigors of holding on to a farm, there is also a sequence during a thunderstorm with Susan trying to cross a bridge to save her lambs (reportedly, sweet little Natalie broke her wrist in this sequence) while the mud slides into the homestead - that is the one suspenseful scene that works well enough to inspire sympathy for Susan's cause. The rest of the movie functions as a promo for the 4-H agricultural program, its sole purpose of educating young men and women in how to raise animals in a farm and other such agricultural practices (the film was executive-produced by wealthy Texas oilman Glenn McCarthy who wanted a "family picture" because there were so few of them). When we are not learning about 4-H clubs, we have a few scenes of Matthews' having a family meeting to vote on certain matters, with the children usually agreeing with their stubborn father so as to not upset him.

As I said, "The Green Promise" is a perfectly adequate family picture though there are not enough insights into Matthews' behavior or Deborah's frustrations with her father and her sweet relationship with David Barkley. After the film is over and ends on a tidy note, it is really sprightly Natalie Wood whom we remember best. Her ambitious character, Susan, wants to rise above it all and make a difference, all in the name of 4-H. We cheer for her, and jeer her father who should know better.