DAVID BIANCULLI

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OLD YELLER
December 21, 2016  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 9:30 p.m. ET

 

Tonight’s another night of Treasures from the Disney Vault on TCM. Leonard Maltin, the perfect host for this recurring feature, provides the perspective for the evening’s offerings, which begin at 8 p.m. with the 1957 Disney-fied nature documentary Perry, a squirrel’s-eye-view of life in the wild. The other treats include two shorts beginning at 12:45 a.m. ET, 1939’s The Ugly Duckling and 1935’s The Tortoise and the Hare, followed at 1:15 a.m. ET by the tacky 1966 live-action comedy The Ugly Dachshund, which features the very pretty Suzanne Pleshette. But the evening’s highlight, at 9:30, is 1957’s Old Yeller, a story about a boy and his dog that, almost 60 years after it was released, still is guaranteed to be an effective and unforgettable tearjerker. Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran play the young farm boys, in post-Civil War Texas, who befriend a yellow hunting dog. Fess Parker, already a major Disney star thanks to TV’s Davy Crockett adventures on ABC’s Disneyland, plays their father.

 
 
 
 
 
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