Gallant Bess


Gallant Bess is a motion picture released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1947. It was loosely based on the true story of U.S. Navy Warrant Officer Arthur Parker's rescuing of an injured filly during World War II. Portions of the movie were filmed on the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in October 1945. This was the first MGM motion picture made in Cinecolor.

Background

Art Parker grows up on a ranch in Montana in the early 1900s and has worked with horses. At the age of 17, he lies to enlist in the U.S. Navy. During World War II, he is stationed in the Solomon Islands and befriends a local rancher.
After a Japanese bombing raid, the rancher asks Parker for help rescuing a filly that has been injured. Parker ends up taking the horse to the Navy base and training her. She eventually becomes a morale booster for the sailors, as well as the unit's mascot.
Bess learns a number of tricks, including running to a sandbagged cave for protection whenever the air raid siren sounds. This leads to those who knew her giving her the nickname "Foxhole Flicka", after the horse in the 1941 children's book My Friend Flicka.
When Parker receives his orders to return to the U.S., he is denied permission to take Bess with him. He eventually either receives permission, or makes the right people think he received permission, and is allowed to build a stall on a ship for Bess.

Plot

Tex Barton is raising horses when navy recruiters come to his town and guilt him into signing up. His horse Bess gets sick and dies right before he is sent to the Pacific to fight in WWII. One night he hears a horse and the other men think he is going crazy. He leaves his tent and finds an injured horse he names Bess. The Horse is adopted by the Navy and is trained to help them on the island.

Reception

The film earned $1,487,000 in the US and Canada and $524,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $196,000.