That's My Man

Even at the tail end of their careers in regular employment, Ameche and Borzage don't let Republic's formula, tear jerker, horse picture totally defeat them. The triple punch still connects - in the card game with Ridgely, speaking the sentimental song to the sick child and the big race.

The production values are very 'forties with the use of studio setting and back projection nearly as much a distraction as the fashions.

It's nice to see Roscoe Karns get a substantial part.

Sweet, sentimental romantic drama about a good man who sincerely loves his wife but who's gambling addiction continually sabotages their relationship. The first 20 minutes or so is fun and engaging meet-cute romantic comedy, but then the movie turns dark.

In 2014 the film became available for the first time on DVD in it's original length. After initial release in 1947, had only been seen rarely and in a heavily edited version. The DVD image and sound are fairly good; it looks to be a new video transfer made from a decent quality archival print.

The production looks surprisingly plush, given it was made for Republic Pictures.

I found the film well acted, especially by Don Ameche, whose unusual for him, calm and underplayed performance made the story a lot more credible than it would have been otherwise. The female lead gave a believable performance, but lacked star quality that would have made her character's tribulations more watchable.

Unfortunately, I found the film slow moving and overly sentimental. I became bored, especially with the overly repetitious plot.

Frank Borzage isn't a well-known director nowadays. I don't know how famous he was back in his time, but he made some good movies (everyone should see "No Greater Glory").

"That's My Man" is a little awkward to watch due to the depiction of gender relations. Don Ameche (recognizable to later generations from his roles in "Trading Places", "Cocoon" and "Harry and the Hendersons") plays a loser who buys a horse. A woman takes him and the horse as boarders. While the plot focuses on the horse's racing success, the gender relations remind me of those movies or TV shows where a woman gets married to a lazy man-baby and he does nothing to contribute.

I guess that the movie was supposed to be about the potential for one's aspirations to interfere with relationships, but it comes across very old-school. Might be interesting to see as a historical reference, but otherwise it's kind of unpleasant.

Don Ameche decides to live life on his own terms. He quits his job as an accountant and buys a colt. He doesn't have a place to keep it. Catherine McLeod offers her apartment. That doesn't work out. However, the horse, Gallant Man, wins every race for the soft-spoken Ameche and his bride. But when Ameche retires the horse rather than carry 140 pounds in handicap, and Miss McLeod tells Ameche not to come home, he goes on the skids.

Frank Borzage's movie of the love between a man and a horse has echoes of his mystical films of the late 1920s and early 1930s, but at times it seems as if Miss McLeod is the third wheel. Still, Ameche pulls off his role by speaking softly and sounding sincere, and there's Roscoe Karns, Joe Frisco, and Frankie Darro to make the whole thig seem possible for 97 minutes. Tony Gaudio offers some great footage of horse races.

This late Frank Borzage movie is almost impossible to categorize. It begins as a kind of 'meet-cute-romantic-comedy' before turning into something more serious but there's a difference, the difference here being a horse. Yes, the man in the title of "That's My Man" is a racehorse we first meet in a taxi-cab one wet Christmas week in LA. His owner is Don Ameche who is so good he makes the mostly cringe-worthy dialogue in these opening scenes sound feasible or is it Borzage, one of the cinema's great romantic directors, who turns potential slop into visual poetry? Regardless, it works. Indeed, these opening scenes are really quite splendid but then it all goes very conventionally downhill. The material is just too off-the-wall and it takes a considerable suspension of disbelief to accept a lot of what is happening. Individual shots and moments do stand out but this is certainly not one of Borzage's better films but then again, no Borzage film is completely negligible and fans of this great director will want to see this. Others may just find it too lachrymose by far.