Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Best movie ever!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

**SPOILERS** Despite the films misleading title "Misty" it's really about Misty's mom the free spirited 3 year old filly known as The Phantom. It was both Paul and his sister Maureen Bebee ,David Ladd & Pam Smith, who wanted to buy The phantom after she was caught in what's known as the annual pony penning or roundup on Assateague Island. The two youngsters working their fingers to the bone had saved up over $100.00 in order to buy her.Wanting this to be a surprise to their grandparents Grandpa and Grandma Bebee, Arthur O'Connell & Anne Seymour,this had the townspeople in the little town of Chincoteagur Virginia feeling that they, Grandpa & Grandma Bebee, were deep in hock and tried, by giving them unneeded credit, to help them out! Meanwhile during the roundup of wild Spanish ponies from the nearby Assateague Island The Phantom had given birth to a foal-Misty-which made her far more easy to catch, in protecting her young,then in the previous year. It was in fact Paul who saved Misty's life when she almost drowned trying to swim,together with her mom and some 100 other wild ponies, to shore on the mainland.Paul in being too shy to ask the chief of Chincoteague's volunteer fire department, whom the ponies were rounded up for, fire chief Eba Jones, Duke Farley, to buy both The Phantom and Misty off him he then sold them to another bidder! This was later rectified with the two sold back to Paul & Maueen when it was felt, by the person who bought them, they needed the two horses or ponies far more then he did by all the effort and work they put into getting them! By the time the film was over The Phantom was involved in a match race on the beach and beat, shades of Zenyatta & Genuine Risk, top Chincoteague colt and racing champ the Black Comet by what look like at least ten lengths. There was also the bittersweet ending in the film with The Phantom leaving little Misty, to her owners the Bebee's, and swimming back to Assateague Island and to her mate,or stallion, the white black & gray Pide Pipper! As we soon learned The Phantom had done all she could for her yearling Misty and with her knowing that she's back on the mainland with the Bebee's she decided to go or swim back home, Assateague Isand, and live the free and open life that she's used to. In her now knowing that her foal Misty now has a good and loving home of her own with the Bebee family on their Chincoteague horse farm.

As a Marylander, this film is clearly a loving homage to the islands of Chincoteague and Assateague. A darling film, with a cast containing many locals, and actual Beebe family members (and their accents), this film has heart. Had to be a labor of love, or they would have brought in professional actors for it all, and left the look and feel of the locals on the cutting room floor. Instead we get a time capsule of a Mayberry style life, that was unique to the nation. You can still go to the pony crossing, and you can still buy ponies, but after some folk thought they could put the foals in their car trunks for the ride home, things changed, and they cost a lot more than they did then.My 9-year-old daughter is sitting next to me, here in 2012, transfixed by this 1961 film. A must see.

The Koch DVD label has just released MISTY on DVD, and they have gone the extra mile by presenting the film in its original widescreen aspect ratio (2:35-1). In widescreen, much of the Chincoteague scenery is quite breathtaking, with wide green vistas, etc. The movie is still the same charming family film that it was back in 1961. Many people have no idea how popular that film was, back in its day. I believe it was one of the highest grossing (non-Disney) family films of the year. It was produced by Robert Radnitz, who specialized in excellent quality family programming (ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, WHERE THE LILIES BLOOM, MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, and SOUNDER)

I first saw this film around 1967 at a children's matinée, and I remember the young girls in the audience were really getting into it, especially at the line by the grandfather, "The Phantom's a piece of wind and sky." With the advent of DVDs, I sought to find this film, but it took me about three years to find out the title, which I had forgotten, then another month to locate a copy, since it was out of print on video.I can appreciate more now why the girls in the audience that day loved this film. It's very charming. It has a very Disney/family style, a very solid, down-to-earth plot (none of that impossible modern "Spy Kids" stuff that relies on CGI effects), a lot of focus on animals and nature, a realistic style, subtle humor, cute pieces of dialog, a well-meshed plot, a warm family feeling, and a happy ending. A film like this shows that guns aren't needed to make a plot exciting or engrossing.Another subtlety that stands out now is that the film is educational, in the same way that Disneyland used to be educational in the early 1960s: endless tidbits of knowledge are imparted via the dialog, such as that a "hand" is equal to four inches, or that a foal should not be fed sugar since that turns the horse into a biter, or that "breaking" a horse is different (and crueler) than "gentling" a horse. It's hard to come away from the film without having learned more about horses, or without having developed more of an appreciation of horses. Also, the locations and history of the annual pony roundup are authentic, so a bit of geographical and historical knowledge is imparted, as well.The scenery is also very nice, with a lot of sandy beaches, sand dunes, coastal pine forest, and open fields with horses running free. The small town feeling with its carnival and everybody knowing everybody else is also very nice. Other than the old-fashioned clothes and hair styles, this film seems a lot more modern than its 1961 date would suggest, and it still stands up well in this modern era without seeming excessively sweet or having ridiculous humor. There are also some gender equality issues thrown into the plot, which makes it ahead of its time. The grandparent-grandchild relationship might be a bit contrived, as is the subject matter of horses, and the boy performing a heroic deed by saving a horse from drowning, but unless one is looking to be critical, such aspects of the plot don't seem out-of-place.This is a solid family film that should still be enjoyable for all ages, especially for horse lovers.