The Homestretch

I only discovered this movie recently and was very excited to have found also it helped it has the gorgeous Cornel Wilde in it. Being Irish i also like Maureen O'Hara our one and only Hollywood legend of the golden days of Hollywood. Apart from 'The Queit Man' which i like but as an Irish person find it a tad patronizing of the stereotypical Irish of that age in Hollywood which unfortunately still exists to this day 'Leap Year' jumps to mind. Anyway enough said on that only to say that apart from John Wayne and John Payne. Maureen O'Hara has the same chemistry with Cornel Wilde and it comes through in this movie. Everything about this film had me hooked from the story to the shots of international and famous race courses. I recommend this to anyone who loves horses and a bit of romance inbetween.

Maureen O'Hara is engaged to marry Glenn Langan, but falls for race horse owner Cornell Wilde. However the rich-one-day-broke-the-next causes a strain that grows greater to finally reach the snapping point.

It's definitely intended as one of those movies that as much a travelogue as a story film, with sequences at Ascot, Saratoga Springs, and Churchill Downs. Unfortunately, the copy I looked at seems to have been a chemical-print rerelease of the originally Technicolor movie, and the color values have shifted to a disconcerting lavender. If, like me, you're always happy to see Miss O'Hara in the silliest vehicle, you'll enjoy this, along with James Gleason, Helen Walker, and Henry Stephenson. But in the poor print that I saw, it was not particularly impressive.

I searched this movie, because I have a photo of this 1947 film title on the marque of the almost new Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo. (Built in 1942). The Fremont still stands alone, uncut up and shows first run movies in the heart of this Central California coastal college town. (Cal Poly). The Fremont is also the main theater for the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.

I stood in line three years ago to shake Howard Keel's hand on opening night. Yes, they were showing Kismet and Keel stood out front by the box office to greet everyone who was coming for the SLO Film Festival's opening night. Then when I mentioned that I was a stage manager for a college production of "Oklahoma!" guest starring John Raitt, Keel wanted to talk longer, as he said he and Raitt played golf almost every day in southern California.

Cornell Wilde's "Naked Prey" was the last good movie he starred in. Two favorite Maureen O'Hara movies of mine are the original "Miracle on 34th Street" with John Payne and Natalie Wood, and the every popular "Quiet Man" with John Wayne. If you visit the Irish village of Cong, you'll discover that this was the local for the John Ford film. They still point out the building that was the pub in the movie, and throughout this unchanged village you'll find stills from "The Quiet Man" framed on the walls of various restaurants. Ashford Castle faces the town of Cong and can be seen in the film. You can also stay at Ashford Castle and play 9 holes of golf out front, accompanied by a youthful Irish caddy.

I'd like to see more readers comment on films on this site, otherwise it will get filled up by people like me making comments about the cast.

Leslie (Maureen O'Hara) seems to have a good life. She's rich, pretty and has a fiance who is a diplomat. However, when Jock (Cornel Wilde) enters her life, she throws away common sense and marries him instead...without really knowing him all that well. At first, everything seems okay but over time, it becomes obvious that Jock is a man-child...an irresponsible guy who is interested in buying racing horses but isn't so concerned whether he can afford them and their extravagant lifestyle. This worries Leslie and Jock promises to change, though being a man-child, Jock doesn't change in the least. Eventually, she gets sick of his irresponsible ways and leaves him. But there's something about the racing and the horses that Leslie cannot completely give up this life.

"The Homestretch" has a fatal flaw...that characters are difficult to care for and I found myself not caring if they grew up or not. Plus, the chemistry between Wilde and O'Hara certainly wasn't enough to overcome this plot problem. The film seems to want the audience to root for them...I certainly didn't.

By the way, there were two small things that annoyed me in this one. First, casting Henry Stephenson as a South American was ridiculous and his 'accent' was pretty limp. Second, considering the film is about horse racing, you'd think they'd pronounce the name of the race track 'Bowie' correctly. A bit of research and that couldn't have happened.

The bottom line is that this is a nice looking film with really superficial characters and plot. It's very watchable but really pretty shallow and predictable.

Some nice racetrack scenes from all over the world highlight this horse racing drama with Cornel Wilde and Maureen O'Hara. The part that Wilde has in the film had to have been originally written for Tyrone Power. It is just the kind of hero/heel that he specialized in over in his glory years at 20th Century Fox.

If Power wasn't available Cornel Wilde in his years at Fox was one of many leading men who ran second string to Zanuck's favorite. But in this case Wilde lucked out with a good part just as he did with Forever Amber around the same time.

Wilde comes from an old Maryland racing family that has fallen on hard times. He's a racetrack vagabond of sorts who picks up a young filly as part of an estate from Maureen O'Hara's late uncle. She's an uptight Boston brahmin set to marry diplomat Glenn Langan. Try as she might she can't resist that irresponsible charm that Wilde possesses in abundance. So off they go with their filly to conquer the racing world.

With establishing footage from all over the world where the call to the post is universal music, the two try to make a go of it. She gets into the game, but she'd like to settle down at his old Maryland homestead and make a go of it with some roots.

In her memoirs Maureen O'Hara said she liked working with Wilde in their two films this one and the swashbuckler At Sword's Point. She felt in the sword play department Wilde was the equal of both Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn. Probably the superior as Wilde was a member of the US Olympic fencing team at the 1936 Olympics.

Certainly the two had good chemistry in The Homestretch. Ethel Griffies as her puritan Boston aunt and James Gleason as Wilde's and his father's old trainer are standouts in the supporting cast.

For those of us who like racetrack pictures, The Homestretch will be a winner.