Big Red

Big Red is a 1962 American family-oriented adventure film from Disney Studios. Based on a 1945 novel by American author Jim Kjelgaard and adapted to the screen by American screenwriter Louis Pelletier, the film starred Walter Pidgeon.
Filmed in the province of Quebec, "Big Red" is an Irish Setter that would rather run through the woods than be the perfectly-trained and groomed show dog his sportsman owner (Pidgeon) wants. A ten-year-old orphan boy (Payant) helps look after the dog and rebels against his owner's strict discipline of "Big Red." It was released on video in 1984, then re-issued again in 1985 and in 1998.
==Plot==
Wealthy sportsman James Haggin lives on a Quebec estate called Wintapi. Émile Fornet, handler of Haggin's hunting dogs, and Émile's wife Therese, Haggin's cook and housekeeper, live in a separate house on the estate. To start a line of top show dogs, Haggin purchases the winner of the Montreal Kennel Club show, an Irish setter named Red. French-Canadian boy René Dumont arrives at Wintapi on foot looking for work. He lived with his uncle in a cabin in the wild country and had no formal schooling. The uncle has died. Haggin hires René to help care for the dogs, especially Red, whom he expects to win the Westminster show in New York the next month. René is quartered inside the kennel. René and Red develop a special bond. The dog is too distracted by the boy to perform correctly for his owner, so Haggin moves Red to the main house until the show, and René is not to see the dog. Mollie, the mate selected for Red, arrives and is placed in Red's kennel. On the eve of the departure for New York, René sneaks to the main house to say goodbye to Red. Determined to follow the boy, Red crashes through a window and is gravely injured. Haggin orders the dog euthanized, but René sneaks Red away to his dead uncle's cabin and nurses him back to health. He returns the dog to Haggin. Red is scarred but still valuable for stud. Haggin wants to hire the boy back, but René finds work at the neighboring dairy farm. Haggin ships Red and the pregnant Mollie by train to Montreal to be sold. On the way, they escape from the baggage car into the wild. When René learns of this, he takes the train to where they were last seen and tracks them down on foot, reuniting with them just as Mollie gives birth to four pups. When Haggin learns that René has not shown up for work at the dairy farm for two weeks, he sets out on horseback to find the boy's cabin and learn what has happened. Man, boy, and dogs are reunited in the woods, but not before Haggin encounters a cougar, loses his horse and gets trapped by a boulder. Red and René rescue him from cougar and boulder. Haggin proposes that René live with him at Wintapi and go to school. René accepts the offer, and they all walk back to Wintapi.
==Cast==
*Gilles Payant as Rene Dumont
*Champion Red Aye Scraps as Big Red
*Walter Pidgeon as James Haggin
*Émile Genest as Emile Fornet
*Janette Bertrand as Therese Fornet
*Georges Bouvier as Baggageman
*Doris Lussier as Farmer Mariot
*Rolland Bédard as Conductor
*Teddy Burns Goulet as Engineer
==Gallery==
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Big red france poster.jpg|Poster from the release in France on April 15, 1966
Big red japan poster.jpg|Poster from the release in Japan on November 2, 1962
Big red spain poster.jpg|Poster from the release in Spain on April 5, 1965
File:22375 3a0a92a3.gif|Poster from the release in Poland in 1969
Big red uk poster.jpg|Poster from the release in the United Kingdom on July 16, 1962
==Copyright info==
The film's copyright was renewed on October 10, 1990.Online Copyright Catalog search (form autofilled, pressing "begin search" brings up the entry) The copyright to the story it is based on was also renewed in the U.S.Catalog of Copyright Entries (Source material)
==References==
Category:Disney films
Category:Live-action films
Category:Unrated_films
Category:1962 films
Category:Films about animals
Category:Films based on books
Category:Articles with Wikipedia content