One day, Old Yeller's original master, Burn Sanderson, arrives looking for his dog. The next day, Old Yeller proves himself as a cow dog by protecting Travis from Rose, their cow, and restraining her while Travis milks her.

After she and Bud leave, Travis scolds Old Yeller. Travis grows to love and respect Old Yeller, who comes to profoundly affect the boy's life.īud Searcy and his granddaughter Lisbeth come for supper one day, and Lisbeth takes Travis aside to tell him Old Yeller has been stealing food all over the county. Its angry mother hears her cub wailing and attacks, but Old Yeller frightens her away, winning over the family. Later, Arliss tries to capture a black bear cub by feeding it cornbread and grabbing it. Yeller's habit of stealing meat from smokehouses and robbing hens' nests does not endear him to Travis, but his mother agrees with the idea of Arliss having a dog. Travis unsuccessfully tries to shoo the dog away, while Arliss defends him. While Jim is away, Travis sets off to work in the cornfield, where he encounters a Black Mouth Cur he names 'Old Yeller', as 'yeller' is a dialect pronunciation of 'yellow' and the dog's bark resembles a human yell. In the late 1860s, Jim Coates leaves his family-wife Katie, teenage son Travis, and small son Arliss-to collect cattle in Kansas.

In 2019, the film was selected for preservation into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'. The film's success led to a 1963 sequel, Savage Sam, which was based on a 1962 book by Gipson. Gipson also co-wrote the screenplay along with William Tunberg. The film is based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Fred Gipson. It is about a boy and a stray dog in post- Civil War Texas. It stars Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker, with Tommy Kirk, and Kevin Corcoran. Old Yeller is a 1957 American drama western film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney.

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