Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by rico (A) on December 13, 2006 at 09:43:19

Posted by rico (A) on December 13, 2006 at 09:41:02

I picked this up in a DVD pack of three classic horse movies, including "Black Beauty" and "National Velvet". The 1949 Seabiscuit story features Barry Fitzgerald and Shirley Temple as an Irish horse whisperer/trainer and his niece who have come to Kentucky after the tragic death of Temple's brother in a steeplechase accident. Fitzgerald becomes enamored of little Seabiscuit, despite the derision of a rival trainer and the horse's owner. Meanwhile Temple embarks on the most chaste romance ever seen on the screen with Seabiscuiyt's jockey (in the entire fim he gives her just one quick peck on the cheek). Anachronisms abound, particularly of the automotive variety and the racism involving black and Asian roles makes one cringe today (blacks are asked to "yessuh yessuh" and "gwine to co home" and the one Asian srevant has to say "Missy Missy" a lot and act like a buffoon). Plus the story is even more fictionalized than the recent Toby McQuire vehicle. Still, it's interesting from a Hollywood history point of view. One of Temple's last films until her return to TV in the late fifties.