Racing Lady

Mediocre script is almost saved by excellent, very talented cast.

Ann Dvorak really shines, and it is such a treat to watch that exotic face showing so many different emotions. She was usually great, but in "Racing Lady" she out-does herself.

She is very ably supported by the rest of the players, including the shamefully little-known Alex Hill as the jockey.

Willie Best and Hattie McDaniel, Harry Carey and that marvelous singer Smith Ballew, who doesn't sing here, are just a few of the highly talented actors who rescue this clichéd story.

It's a little movie, and has nothing spectacular but a stellar cast. But it's worth watching just for them.

Racing Lady (1937)

** (out of 4)

Forgettable "B" picture from RKO about Ruth Martin (Ann Dvorak), a woman who plans to bring her father's (Harry Carey) racing stable back into power but finds herself hitting one hurdle after another. RACING LADY clocks in at 59-minutes so obviously you're not going to find any sort of character development or story that manages to do much. What we've basically got is a very predictable sports melodrama with all sorts of clichés that were already out-dated by 1937 standards. Even worse is that the screenplay really doesn't offer up anything new or original so all of these clichés just lead to a rather boring movie and even a slow one, which is really shocking considering how short this is. Dvorak brings some nice energy to her role and she tries her best to help keep the film moving but there's just nothing here for her to work with. Carey is good in his supporting bit as are Smith Ballew and Benrton Churchill but, again, they just don't have anything to work with. Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best are on hand delivering the type of good performances we expected of them but in the type of roles that really aren't that special. The film follows one predictable turn after another and the film is actually so lazy that they cut out any sort of story development in favor of title cards that move the action along.

Making generous use of newsreel footage of racetracks of the era, Racing Lady is the story of a woman entering the man's world of race horse training. The pioneer in this case is Ann Dvorak who comes by her interest naturally being raised by small time owner Harry Carey. It's in her blood.

Young and rich sportsman Smith Ballew claims Dvorak's horse, partly to get a winner, but also partly to gain her as a trainer. Dvorak and Ballew go through quite a rough patch before the film ends.

Stepping into a role that would normally go to someone like Raymond Walburn is Berton Churchill, a foxy fellow owner and quite the sportsman himself. Churchill is probably best known to today's audience as the stuffy banker/embezzler who was a passenger on John Ford's Stagecoach, but in Racing Lady he goes against type and quite successfully.

It's a B film without a terrible lot of production values, but Racing Lady is entertainment enough for those who follow the sport of kings.

Ann Dvorak and Harry Carey wound up in this B movie, Racing Lady, done by RKO and probably made in about three days.

Dvorak and Carey are daughter and father, Ruth and Tom Martin. Ruth has a horse that she believes has the makings of a winning racehorse. There aren't any female trainers in the racing field (in fact, I'm not sure there are many today). However, during the horse's first race, she is injured when pushed into the rail. The vet advises euthanasia, but Ruth has the horse's leg bandaged up, and retires her to the home she shares with her father.

The horse's filly turns out to be an excellent racehorse. Ruth can't afford the high fee for one of the big races, but puts the horse in a claiming race, which means all the horses are up for sale for about the same price until the actual race. Ruth's horse wins, but she learns it was claimed by one Steven Wendel (Smith Ballew), who owns many winning racehorses. He offers Ruth a job training, and she takes it, wanting to be near her horse.

Not much in the way of character development here as the film only runs one hour. Dvorak was better than this; she eventually became disgusted with her roles, married an Englishman, and made films there for a time. The actor playing Wendel, Smith Ballew, was the first singing cowboy and a popular radio star. He eventually retired and moved to Texas. The wonderful Harry Carey would go on to be nominated for an Oscar for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington not long after this.

Hattie McDaniel gives a spirited performance as a beloved employee, but the other two blacks in the film played cringe-worthy stereotypes, always difficult to see nowadays.

The horses were beautiful, and the racing footage was interesting.

This one-hour feature from RKO, about how Ann Dvorak wants to revive father Harry Carey's racing stable but winds up following a filly after it's picked up in a claiming race, moves along at too fast a pace to be particularly engrossing. Even the large number of fine actors in supporting roles -- not only Carey, but Berton Churchill, Hattie McDaniel and WIllie Best, can't make this much of a picture. Carey's slow, honest pace of dialogue conflicts with the limits imposed by the short length of the film, and the other supporting actors are given almost no time to work in their roles.

A movie only for fans of the actors involved.