Song of the Road

When the council votes to get rid of its horse and carts in favor of motorized lorries, Bransby Williams buys the horse he's been working with and takes to the road to find a place for them both. Yet wherever he goes, he thinks of the friends he makes on the way and pushes them towards new and technological methods.

John Baxter's movie is intensely nostalgic for the old ways, with its images of horse-drawn haying and medicine shows, yet clear-eyed in its understanding that the world requires a head as well as a heart. Williams knows what's what, and forces others into doing what's right for them, even though they are equally willing to sacrifice themselves for him.

I looked at this movie because it has Tod Slaughter in a supporting role, playing a villain yearning for Peggy Novak, but there are other pleasures here, in Jack Parker's bucolic landscapes and the performances of Muriel George, David Burnaby, Percy Parsons and, of course, Polly the Horse.