Glory

Bit of fluff about a teenage girl named Clarabel (child actress Margaret O'Brien in a grown-up role), living in a trailer on a Kentucky horse ranch, who falls in love - with the new little chestnut filly just born on the ranch, who she names "Glory". When Glory becomes a yearling, Clarabel's "Gram" (Charlotte Greenwood) puts the horse up for sale (she has warned Clarabel to "never fall in love with one horse") for they need the money badly - but sad, sad Clarabel is helped out by local millionaire youth Chad and a horse doctor who prevents the sale. Clarabel and Chad have tons in common since, after all, all he talks about is horses, apparently - one problem, it's rumored he is engaged to one Candy Trent, who is one rich stuck-up snob. Well, Glory is trained for racing and proves to be a fast runner, and Clarabel decides to enter her prized horse in the "Kentucky Derby", even though it's rare for a filly to have a chance to win against the colts.

This film is a decent B-movie with a racehorse theme, mildly entertaining, painlessly pleasant. It oddly switches gear about the middle of the way through into a semi-musical (with several rather mediocre songs thrown in). Clarabel plays guitar and sings to her horse, then suddenly she is heard in the stables by a good-looking radio celebrity and hired to sing on his show, a second little romance to follow for her (but you just know she'll always be loyal to horse-lovin' Chad). There is a bit of history of thoroughbreds related at the beginning of the film including a shot of real-life Triple Crown winning race horse Citation; the finale features real footage of a Kentucky Derby race. For fans of Margaret O'Brien, it is so nice to see her in one of her almost adult roles - she's a charmer, but unfortunately the weak script doesn't really give her much of a chance to shine here. A side story features favorite character actor Walter Brennan as her "Uncle Ned" who constantly bickers and yells back and forth with Clarabel's Gram (but it appears they secretly really like each other!). Cute, lightly entertaining film - nothing great though.

Neat little film of coming of age Margaret O'Brien owning and training racehorse. The production values are nice,there's a nice bunch of character actors. Maggie looks sweet in fifties-era dresses. It's not Medea but it's a fun enough racetrack drama with some music put in. A commenter mentioned Maggie's singing, she was dubbed by the Champagne Lady herself,Norma Zimmer. Charlotte Greenwood and Walter Brennan are great as always. For some reason RKO in the fifties had the nicest color photography and it's on display here. Definitely an enjoyable movie to watch. The only complaint some viewers might have is that this film seems more like a forties film rather than a fifties. Hollywood was still trying to recycle old formulas in its attempt to keep its' head above water. Unfortunately,this film didn't lead to a grown-up career for Margaret o'Brien as it should have.

I sat through Glory was because Hot Toasty Rag was honoring Margaret O'Brien as Star of the Week, and this was the only movie I could get my hands on to see her acting talents as a young woman. The one nice thing I'll say about this movie is that there's nothing wrong with Margaret, and I would have loved to see more of her adult acting. Now for the not-too-nice stuff:

Nineteen-year-old Margaret plays a tomboy who lives and breathes horses. Her grandmother, Charlotte Greenwood, does nothing besides reprise her role as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! and engage in irritating screaming contests with Walter Brennan. I can only imagine how tired Walter was of playing the grumpy, old hick, so why didn't he turn this movie down? Since Charlotte Greenwood had already been in Oklahoma!, why didn't she turn this movie down? If everyone involved protested and refused to make this movie, there would be no movie to criticize, and no one's feelings would be hurt from reading such terrible criticism. As it stands, people did show up to work, Glory did get made, and everyone who's ever seen it has panned it.

We were all pulling for Maggie O'Brien back then. She had been a child star in the early 40s and we all fell in love with her. So, when he was a teen ager and made this film at 17, we wanted her to make it. Alas, it wasn't in the cards. Even the great character actors Walter Brennan, Charlotte Greenwood and Sasha Kinsky couldn't add to a racehorse story that stirred about as much excitement as watching a dog scratch fleas. She played the guitar, looked cute and tried to be charming but that's a far as it went.

Her age mate, Jane Fonda, was waiting in the wings and would take off. Both Margret O'Brien and Jane Fonda were born the same year but Jane had the talent and Maggie couldn't market hers.

Such are the blessings of the muses. If this film rolls around sometime on the late show-- there's no video or DVD at this writing-- give it a look-see. Maggie was cute and talented. It's worth seeing.

I was born in Louisville, on Derby Day, in the year of the Horse. I grew up in horse farm country (Lexington), and I used to work in the horse race business (as a Video Engineer).

I enjoy this film, immensely, because there are not many great horse race films (Seabiscuit, was a near-classic). I really enjoy the location shots, the horse barn, the race tracks, the close-ups of the magnificent horses.

The acting is not great, despite some excellent character actors. The verisimilitude of horse racing, is however, spot-on. The writers obviously did their homework. Seeing the color photography of Keeneland, and Churchill Downs, in the 1950's is always a treat.

There have only been three (3) fillies, to win the Kentucky Derby: Regret, Genuine Risk, and Winning Colors. So, the title horse has to be a filly! The horse race crowd, loves an underdog, look at the enthusiasm for Mine That Bird, who was a 50-1 shot in the 2009 Derby.

Long live the races!!