April Love is an American musical film directed by Henry Levin and produced by David Weisbart, based on the novel Phantom Filly by George Agnew Chamberlain (New York City, 1941).

[3] Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by Wilfred M. Cline, it was the fourth most popular movie of 1957 and stars Pat Boone, Shirley Jones, Arthur O'Connell, Dolores Michaels, Matt Crowley, Jeanette Nolan and Bradford Jackson.

Nick Conover (Pat Boone), a Chicago youth, arrives at his aunt Henrietta (Jeanette Nolan) and uncle Jed Bruce's (Arthur O'Connell) Kentucky horse farm.

Liz is the tomboy and farm lover who has a crush on Nick, while her elder sister Fran (Dolores Michaels) is the sophisticate who is dating Al Turner (Bradford Jackson).

Nick spends time with both Templeton girls and sees Liz as a "good sport" and Fran as girlfriend material, though she is with Al.

Shortly before the harness races at the Bentonville Fair, Tugfire falls ill after Nick leaves him in the corral during a severe storm.

However, immediately after the race, the local sheriff arrives to arrest Nick and send him back to Chicago for parole violation.

Not knowing it would cause any problems, Fran filed an accident report about her automobile crash, stating Nick was driver of the other vehicle.

The sheriff decides to let Nick stay in Kentucky, having been told by Mr. Templeton to do so since it was a minor infraction and no one got hurt, much to everyone else's relief.

Leonard Maltin described it as an "engaging musical"[10] while The New York Times' Bosley Crowther said it had "two of the nicest-looking young singers to be found anywhere, a batch of pleasant tunes, some nifty Kentucky scenery in good color and absolutely no plot.

"[11] Harold Whitehead of The Montreal Gazette observed that it was a "long, slow musical romance", and in particular noted that Boone, "the respectable hero of the teen-agers, seems to have worked so hard at gaining his reputation that he has turned himself into a rather pompous young man.

The film was a hit...And it wasn't as if Fox lacked Americana stories in their back catalog that they could remake: Kentucky (1938), Maryland (1940), Margie (1946), Smoky (1946), Scudda Hoo!