Where the Red Fern Grows (1974 film)

Where the Red Fern Grows is a 1974 drama film about a young boy and his quest for his own red-bone hound hunting dogs.

Directed by Norman Tokar. Written by Douglas C. Stewart and Eleanor Lamb, based on the novel by Wilson Rawls.

A Boy's Greatest Adventure Begins...taglines

Dialogue

Billy: Grandpa says in New England, everyone's going crazy over coon skin coats.

Father: Is that right?

Billy: So we should be gettin' a good price.

Father: I'll tell you what. I'll let you have one whole wall of that smokehouse if you think you and them dogs can cover it.

Billy: It's not hardly big enough, is it?

---

Billy: I couldn't come home, mama. My dogs had a coon up this tree.

Grandpa: Well, he sure picked a big sycamore.

Billy: Biggest one in the whole river bottom.

Grandpa: That's all right. The bigger they come, the harder they fall.

Father: Well, there's no sense chopping down a tree like this, just for one coon. Come on, Billy, we gotta go.

Billy: I can't, papa.

Father: Why not?

Billy: I made a bargain with my dogs. I told them if they'd put one up a tree, I'd do the rest. They did their part, it's up to me to do mine.

Mother: Well you're quitting, and that's that, so come on. Let's go. Billy, do I have to whip you on top of all the punishment you already brought on yourself? Do I?

Billy: Yes, ma'am.

Father: A man can't keep his word, Jenny, he's not much good. Especially to himself.

Grandpa: I say amen to that, Jenny.

Taglines

• A Boy's Greatest Adventure Begins...
• He Made a Promise And He Kept It!
• A True Story of a Boy and His Dogs

Cast

• James Whitmore - Grandpa
• Beverly Garland - Mama Coleman
• Jack Ging - Papa Coleman
• Lonny Chapman - Sheriff
• Stewart Petersen - Billy Coleman
• Bill Dunbar - Mr. Kyle
• Marshall Edwards - The Preacher
• Jill Clark - Alice
• Jeanna Wilson - Sarah Coleman
• Rex Corley - Rubin Pritchard
• John Lindsey - Rainie Pritchard
• Garland McKinney - Mr. Pritchard

Production

The film is produced by Lyman Dayton and filmed on location in Oklahoma, including at the waterfall in what is now Natural Falls State Park.

External links

• Where the Red Fern Grows (1974 film) quotes at the Internet Movie Database