A Day at Santa Anita

A little girl and a racehorse. That's all you need to know, so it should come as no surprise this -minute-short is very predictable. Along the way it is filled with the familiar characters: a young girl who can relate to a horse as no one else can; a kindhearted father who is killed in an auto accident at the track, leaving her the owner of the horse "Wonder Boy." There are other good people on her side and a greedy couple who are out to sabotage the Peach's horse so their nag can win the big prize. The big prize is first-place earnings in the $100,000 race at Santa Anita. Back in the 1930s, the era of "Seabiscuit," the "hundred grander," as they called it, was always the big race of the Santa Anita season.

Sybil Jason as "Peaches," yes even the names are corny, gives it her all in a Shirley Temple- like performance. She even sings a song. The South African-born little actress did play in a couple of Shirley's films in the following two years but then called it a career in 1940

A shock came halfway through this when we saw celebrities enter their box seats at the track and most of them actually delivered lines. This wasn't stock footage. First there was the couple of Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler, then Olivia de Havilland with Edward G. Robinson, followed by Frank McHugh, Bette Davis, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins and others.

This short feature can be seen as on the DVD, "Each Dawn I Die," a film that starred James Cagney and George Raft.