The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit

an all family movie from the 60's If you were ever a horse crazy youngster and want to see a film with a bunch of beautiful horses and a Benji looking dog. here it is... although you will have it all figured out in advance, it is an entertaining, fun flick. all are happy, all ends well for everyone in this film. there is no downside unless you die from the sugar in it all. You will see a real young Kurt Russell as Dean Jones' daughters' boyfriend too,then you can check how he looks nowadays in his more mature adult roles, like Stargate etc. If you want to show your kids or grandkids a time when the hard facts of life were set aside in favor of some light entertainment and that all movies don't have portray "real Life" this is one of them. Disney was so good at bringing out fairy tales and just nice movies. Another thing i always liked was seeing events that do not occur anywhere around where i lived. Eastern style riding, the clothes, the events held and even the horses are alien to what we see out here in the western u.s. I am used to rodeos and quarter horses, and have yet to see an actual steeplechase, or sulky race or folks togged out for fox hunting. Even the jumping events that are in this show are not commonly found here in the rocky Mountains. So watching it is kind of extra fun, because it is not common here.

Straightforward and pretty predictable, but 'The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit' is still a film I enjoyed watching.

Dean Jones is always fun to watch, that's no different here as he portrays Fred. Diane Baker is also up to scratch as Suzie. Ellen Janov (Helen) and Kurt Russell (Ronnie) make for suitable child actors, while Fred Clark plays the role of Tom well. It's the cast that's most likeable about this film.

Plot-wise it's good, the pacing is solid as is the score. Perhaps the run time could've been slightly shorter, but that's not really a serious criticism of mine to be honest. It's all worth a view.

The whole set-up of this contrived Disney family film (ad-exec gets his teenage daughter a horse because she "wants one more than anything else in the world") is just an excuse to film the big climactic horse-show at the end. All the other ingredients (the ad campaign for the stomach pill, Kurt Russell as a potential boyfriend for the youngster, Lloyd Bochner as a potential rival for Dean Jones over the affections of Diane Baker) are shelved near the end simply to showcase the horse. Over half the picture is padding, and worse: it is whiny and obnoxious. The kid is the ninny-sort who cries on the couch with a dog in her arms, and as usual she gets her way. * from ****

While The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit is not great cinema by any means, it will appeal to horse lovers. I enjoyed it, and if I had seen it as a kid I bet I would have loved it. The horse that plays Aspercel is gorgeous, and there is lots of handsome horseflesh around in general. I miss how movies used to feature horses that looked like what they were meant to be (this movie, the Black Stallion) instead of using another breed or different type and assuming the public wouldn't notice if it didn't look or perform like it ought (Black Beauty, Seabiscuit). Also, the riding looks reasonably realistic and the action is fairly accurate to what hunters and jumpers do (and did then).

The human performances are okay--all about what you'd expect from a 1960s Disney movie with such a goofy premise. Young Kurt Russell is cute as a button and just as likable as he is today.

Making a play on the Gregory Peck/Jennifer Jones film of the Fifties, The Horse With The Grey Flannel Suit is about an advertising man who thinks of a brilliant idea to help his daughter with her horseback riding hobby. A most expensive proposition if one owns one's own horse as Ellen Janov's riding instructor Diane Baker suggests.

The suit is Dean Jones and no one tries to put the horse in a suit. His idea which he pitches to the owner of the advertising firm is to buy a horse and train it as a show horse and have it win the junior riding championship in Washington, DC. Along the way and quite by accident with Dean Jones discovering it rather uncomfortably, they find out that the horse is a jumper which opens all kinds of new possibilities.

Jones and Baker are a nice fit in the leads and Ellen Janov is good as the daughter who does come over like a real kid. Maybe she was just a kid and it wasn't acting. Her career was over shortly and I read with sadness that she died in a fire in the next decade.

This film was also the farewell big screen appearance of Fred Clark who mastered the slow burn as if he understudied Edgar Kennedy. Clark plays Jones's boss who is inpatient to see results in the form of publicity. The horse's name is Aspercel which is a generic tummy pain medication they're trying to sell. I wish the film had more of Morey Amsterdam who plays a rather madcap ad man.

The Horse In The Grey Flannel Suit may yet see a remake from The Magic Kingdom. I can see Jim Carrey for instance in the Dean Jones role. Until then, this will do nicely.