Le gagnant du Kentucky

The story may be about a thoroughbred horse named Black Gold who entered the classic Kentucky Derby, but I found the real story was about an innocent victim named Charley Eagle (Anthony Quinn) whose lack of knowledge of the white man's scrupulous ways to take advantage of the less fortunate was so prevalent in the 1940's and the decades earlier.

In the current decade of the 2020's we still have hundreds of thousands of shady characters who hide behind software and telephone scams to swindle the elderly and new immigrant populations across the world. Back in this 1947 film Charley enters his race horse in a claiming race and when his horse wins easily Charley's initial joy is lost when he learns that his horse has been claimed for a paltry sum by a scrupulous individual who is happy to take the winning horse into his own expanding winning horse stable.

Long before Jed Clampett and the (1962-1971) TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies struck gold, black gold, texas tea, as they called it, the humble but proud farmer Charley Eagle struck oil on the land he owned and unlike the fate that took away his prized racehourse through a claiming race, Charley had a reputable engineer and friend who ensured Charley would reap the financial benefits of his large oil strike on his land.

Yes, there is a dramatic horse race to be run, and yes poor Charley experiences both the highs and lows of winning and losing, but that is how life takes most of us by surprise.

I give Black Gold a passable 5 out of 10 IMDb rating.

This movie is certainly not the most representative of the Phil Karlson's career. No trace of Karlson's style here, nothing rough, tough, gritty, as in KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, nor BROTHERS RICCO or 99 RIVER STREET, or even any other western from him. After all, this one seems to be more a western than a crime drama. But it is a very pleasant, agreeable little oater, involving a horse and a family. So that's a false drama and western destined to the whole family. But I would have never guessed Karlson as the director, why not Don Siegel? No, I would have guessed a Francis D Lyon, or a Ted Tetzlaff.

Tony Quinn often wound up playing an Indian. In this film, a story based on a race horse saga, his wife at that time, Katherine DeMille played his wife. The setting is Oklahoma and Quinn plays an Indian who owns a remarkable race horse and takes in a young Chinese orphan who rides the horse to the winner's circle. I saw this film when I was a 10 year old kid. My old Irish mother was a fanatic on racehorses and knew much of the reported facts on the story of Black Gold, named for his color and a play on words on the discovery of oil on the land of Charley Eagle. The film is not too memorable with the exception of Quinn's character telling the oil men who come to drill on his land, "Look if you don't find anything, be sure and fill in any holes you dig so my horses won't break their legs." Now, there was a guy who had his priorities straight.

No DVD or video and not very likely one will appear real soon. Look for it on the late, late show sometime. It's good family viewing with a definite anti-racist message along with a bittersweet ending.

Even allowing for modern tastes and attitudes changing, this is an awful movie. Anthony Quinn cannot save it and no one else in the movie is even halfway decent. Katherine DeMille as his wife seems to be shooting for "stoic" and landing on "comatose". As was said of an equally terrible film on MST3K, "Someone with attention deficit disorder edited this movie." Things just kind of happen for no apparent reason and scenes fade out like the director got bored (and if he did, fair enough.) Plots are sort of vaguely started, then peter out.

And of course, the only thing this has to do with the actual 1924 Kentucky Derby winner, Black Gold, is the horse has the same name and was owned by an Indian (in reality, a Cherokee named Al Hoots. He was dead before Black Gold won the Derby and that's about all he has in common with "Charley Eagle.") The movie can't even be bothered to get the Derby roses the right color (unless the film stock is SO degraded those were red at some point.) Even the softened-up version of the horse's story told in Marguerite Henry's "Black Gold" is more accurate than this disaster area. This is an excellent example of a case where just because you have some spare money and actors on contract does not mean you have to make a movie.

This was Allied Artists "first film":....it was really a Monogram Picture and this was the first release in 1947,under their new name for their 'better' product ALLIED ARTISTS. It was a fairly expensive film for them then ($450K) and filmed in colour. As a film it is a very effective multicultural experience and it is a credit to them to take such a risk on what one would think was then un marketable themes: illegal immigrant Chinese boy is adopted by land owning red Indian family, who send him to school. Kid gets taunted because of his new family and Chinese face. Pop, Anthony Quinn discovers oil on the farm and gets rich. They buy a racehorse and it becomes a champ and they become richer! Racial prejudice gets and airing too when they enter' society'. All quite startling and effectively handled. For these themes to be their first high profile calling card, AA/Monogram get a good report and deserve recognition for their worthy ideals. It is worth noting the interesting films Monogram decided to make as Allied Artists in their first few years, as THE GANGSTER and IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE attest. BLACK GOLD seems corny by today's cynicism, but the was a deserving hit for them. Like Republic's COME NEXT SPRING, a real Americana treat if you can find it and just enjoy.