Best Man Wins

Edgar Buchanan returns home after being away a long time. He's got nothing but his rig and pair of bays and his jumping frog from Calaveras County -- that's in California. His wife, Anna Lee, is just about to sign her divorce decree so she can marry Judge Robert Shayne. But Buchanan connects with their son, Gary Gray, and through a series of small gambling swindles, buys the grey hound that the boy wants, hoping that he can train it so they can have the money without marrying Shayne.

John Sturges directed this low-key oddity of a movie, and Buchanan exhibits a good deal of lazy charm, while Miss Lee gradually thaws and Shayne gradually grows meaner, in a set of character studies. There's also a fine secondary role for Hobart Cavanaugh. In the end, it's not much of anything, but it's a pleasant amble getting there.

So far as I know, this film has never been released on video. And it may never have been shown on television. In fact, it's possible that I own the only surviving copy of the film! I bought a nice clean 16mm print of it on eBay last year and later had to buy a sound projector in order to watch it. However, even now, I have only seen the first reel (because it took me and a friend so long to get the projector running properly the night we tried to watch the film that we didn't have the energy to sit all the way through it.)

Made in the late '40s, the film is a loose (very loose) adaptation of Mark Twain's jumping frog story. Its main character, Jim Smiley (played by Edgar Buchanan) is a ne'er-do-well obsessed with betting on his champion jumping frog who must change his ways in order to avoid losing his wife. Not much more to say about the film

I regard this film as being strictly for Mark Twain aficianados. And if you happen to be one of them folk, try to get yourself to the State of Mark Twain Studies conference in Elmira, N.Y., on August 16-18, 2001.

This film is set in Missouri in 1853. After being gone over a decade and without a word from him, Jim Smiley (Edgar Buchanan) arrives back in his home town. The timing is interesting, as his wife (Anna Lee) is about to have her divorce finalized for desertion and she'll soon be marrying the Judge (Robert Shayne). Why he's arrived at this particular moment is never stated...and it's either a coincidence or he's there to stop his wife from remarrying. However, Jim does NOT behave as if he wants anything other than to catch up with his son...a boy who has no memory of him.

As to why Jim left, he apparently is a gambling addict and he still is actively gambling and flim-flamming people. He's a likable rogue...but a rogue nevertheless. This story is about him reimposing himself in his family's lives...and his efforts to repair the damage he's done.

Edgar Buchanan is very good in the lead and he makes for a likable jerk. But as for the wife, she must be insane to have anything to do with him...especially since he's STILL gambling. Overall, this makes for an odd family picture...one that seems to say that redemption is possible even when it's unearned. A truly strange story that is watchable but completely ridiculous.