A cute premise for a story -- Butch Jenkins as a boy who converses with racehorses (think Horse Whisperer, The (1998) meets Angels in the Outfield (1951) -- is never let run anywhere except to the glue factory.
The first sign of trouble is Peter Lawford as his older brother -- think Shirley Jones re Ronnie Howard in Music Man, The (1962). Brother-in-Lawford doesn't even bother trying to hide his posh English accent in a 1909 middle-class Baltimore setting. His character's own gimmick is his attempts at inventing radio while holding down a day job in a bank. Whether or not he succeeds we're never really told.
Don't ask about plot development. At the end of the first act the boy's favorite horse is shot after an accident on the track. It's all nowhere from there. Not even Spring Byington de-mothballing her flighty-mother character from You Can't Take It with You (1938) can lighten the load the picture makes for itself. The out-of-the-blue climax comes on a nicely packaged happy note when everyone, unbeknownst to each other, bets on a 20-1 Preakness longshot who does his part.
If there's a remake in the works -- it's curious that there hasn't been one, already -- I can only hope the producers learn what NOT to do from this.
The first sign of trouble is Peter Lawford as his older brother -- think Shirley Jones re Ronnie Howard in Music Man, The (1962). Brother-in-Lawford doesn't even bother trying to hide his posh English accent in a 1909 middle-class Baltimore setting. His character's own gimmick is his attempts at inventing radio while holding down a day job in a bank. Whether or not he succeeds we're never really told.
Don't ask about plot development. At the end of the first act the boy's favorite horse is shot after an accident on the track. It's all nowhere from there. Not even Spring Byington de-mothballing her flighty-mother character from You Can't Take It with You (1938) can lighten the load the picture makes for itself. The out-of-the-blue climax comes on a nicely packaged happy note when everyone, unbeknownst to each other, bets on a 20-1 Preakness longshot who does his part.
If there's a remake in the works -- it's curious that there hasn't been one, already -- I can only hope the producers learn what NOT to do from this.