Gallant Bess

Infobox Film
name = Gallant Bess


image_size =
caption = Theatrical poster
director =
producer = Harry Rapf
writer = Arthur Parker, under the pseudonyn Marvin Parks (story origination)
Jeanne Bartlett (story)
Jeanne Bartlett
narrator =
starring = Marshall Thompson
George Tobias
music = Rudolph G. Kopp
cinematography = John W. Boyle
editing = Harry Komer
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = 1 January 1947
runtime = 100 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0038547

"Gallant Bess" is a motion picture released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1946. [ [http://imdb.com/title/tt0038547/ Gallant Bess (1946)] , "The Internet Movie Batabase", n.d., URL accessed 2006-11-17] 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 [Based on personal knowledge of the author as a grandson of Arthur Parker] . Portions of the movie were filmed on the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in October 1945. [ Hynes, William, [http://www.intercom.net/~whynes/lst119.html LST119] , n.d., URL accessed 2006-11-22]

Art Parker was raised on a ranch in Montana in the early 1900s and had worked with horses in his early life. At the age of 17, he lied to enlist in the U.S. Navy. During World War II, he was stationed in the Solomon Islands and had befriended a local rancher.

After a Japanese bombing raid, the rancher came to Parker with information about a filly that had been injured and asked him to help rescue the horse. Parker ended up taking the horse to the Navy base, trained her, and she eventually became a source of morale for the sailors, as well as the unit's mascot.

Bess learned a number of tricks, including to run to a sandbagged cave for protection whenever the air raid siren sounded. This led to those who knew her giving her the nickname "Foxhole Flicka", after the horse appearing in the 1941 children's book, "My Friend Flicka".

When Parker received his orders to return to the U.S., he was denied permission to bring Bess home with him. He eventually either received permission, or made the right people "think" he received permission, and was allowed to build a stall on a ship to transport Bess back to the U.S. Parker family lore is that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, heard of Parker's actions and convinced the president to grant permission to bring Bess home. [Based on personal knowledge of the author as a grandson of Arthur Parker]

After the war, Parker was approached by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to film several movies with Bess. "Gallant Bess" was the first to be filmed and was to be a true account of Bess' rescue, however, the movie was written such that the first half of the movie, until the character "Tex" joins the Navy, was purely fictional. The rest of the movie closely resembled the true account, but still with much artistic license.

The Navy would not allow Parker's name to be credited to the movie since he was still on active duty, so the movie is fictitiously credited as "Based on a true story as told by Lt. Marvin Park, U.S.N.R." [ [http://imdb.com/name/nm1421337/ Marvin Park] , "The Internet Movie Batabase", n.d., URL accessed 2006-11-17] In the movie, Bess did star as herself, and Parker also had a cameo in a scene taking place during a violent thunderstorm. Neither actor in the scene could control Bess with the practical effects used to produce the scene, so Parker was filmed attempting to calm Bess.

Because M-G-M did not follow the true account as closely as Parker believed they would, the series of movies with Bess that were planned were never filmed. Bess did, however, become friends with Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor, and she was visited and ridden by other notables such as Charles Lindbergh.

Bess foaled Gallant Pat in the 1950s, and lived out the rest of her life with Parker on a ranch in Grass Valley, California. She was euthanized in the late 1960s due to a brain tumor. She still bore the scars from her World War II injuries.

The rights to "Gallant Bess" are now owned by Warner Bros. [[e-mail], Re: Gallant Bess, Email to Chris Parker, 2007-1-22] , and it is occasionally shown on the Turner Classic Movies channel.

References