Ramona Reviews

Notable only as 20th Century Fox's first feature shot entirely in Technicolor, this is the first and only sound version, but the umpteenth film version, of the classic Helen Hunt Jackson novel. The film features the unlikely casting of Young as the half-breed native American girl who leaves her fiance, white man Taylor, for the charms of Indian Ameche (equally miscast). Striking out on their own, Young (raised by kindly whites) is shocked to discover rampant racism in old California. Their marriage ends tragically when Ameche is killed by farmer Carradine, who thinks that the Indian has stolen his horse. In reality, Ameche has only borrowed the horse to ride and get help for his sick daughter. Ameche is nearly laughable in this, his first starring role, and Young is visibly ill (she had to withdraw from the production for health reasons and a double was used in several of her sequences).