Kentucky

Frankly, I paid less attention to the plot than to the horses in the early part of the film. My God, where did they get those magnificent animals? Golden Chimes, Grenadier, Torch Bearer were worth the whole film to a horse lover! And the films of the great horses of the period, especially Man o' War, are a special treat. However, having to sit through Bobs Watson, probably the worst child actor in history, is really an effort. Little Bobs didn't cry, he BLUBBERED, with his cheeks swollen like balloons, and that whiney, squally voice--! Oh, well, I guess you can't have everything. Enjoy the horses and forget the rest!

This 1938 film is a real love letter to the Kentucky Derby and it's Southern rooted thoroughbred history. It begins just prior to and during the Civil War, which sets the stage for a feud between the Dillon Family and the Goodwin Family. Then fast forward to 1938 and two grandchildren of the Dillion and Goodwin Family meet, have conflict and fall in love all over training thoroughbreds and racing in the Kentucky Derby.

Jack Dillon, played by the handsome Richard Greene, returns home to the family ranch in Kentucky from London England where he had been studying to go into the banking business with his father. The problem is Jack doesn't want to be a banker, he wants to be a horse trainer...when he has a disagreement with his father at the bank, he goes incognito as a trainer with the Goodwin Family after setting eyes on the lovely Sally Goodwin, played by the beautiful Loretta Young. The Goodwin family has all their hopes pinned on a single horse that they win from the Dillon Family making this year's Kentucky Derby high stakes!

There is definitely some Hollywood-ized Southern flair to this film, but it is worth seeing for its beautiful time capsule of 1938 Kentucky Derby and all it's fanfare. Great film for a Kentucky Derby family night.

Directed by David Butler, it tells the story of two families who held a hatred for generations: the Goodwins and the Dillons. The niece of the former and the son of the latter are united by the love of horse racing, they try to erase the past between their relatives but they do not succeed, generating a dispute with the heads of each house.

At least that's the idea, but reading reviews I found myself in the same situation as everyone. I thought it was a love story with a lot of drama and it ended up being a horse racing movie with an incoherent secondary romance.

It is entertaining and passes fast but it does not mean that its focus is unclear. The characters that should have been the main characters, Loretta Young and Richard Greene, were very flat, especially the first one which seems to always be in the same mood despite all the misfortunes that happen to her during. Both their relationship and the outcome of the betrayal unravel and it is not understood what Greene did wrong or what Loretta did not really know. Undoubtedly the one who knew how to take advantage of it and take over the screen was Walter Brennan, who with his stubborn and curmudgeonly character becomes the funniest, most dynamic and natural part of the film. This role was his second win at the Oscars in 1939 for 'Best Supporting Actor', deserved.

There is a small prologue which depicts the beginning of the Civil war in a small Kentucky town; but most the action takes place in 1938 when both families are vying for the cups in horse racings:the Goodwin (check the name) and the Dillon.Whereas the Goodwin are almost broke -and they sell their stuff by auction- ,the Dillon affairs are thriving .Do not panic for Dillon jr (Greene) falls for gorgeous young Goodwin girl (Young) ;it could be Romeo and Juliet on the horse fields but it is not for the boy conceals his identity .Miss Young is eye candy in color, but the screenwriters seem more interested in horses than in love affairs .The great race is well filmed and in the last scenes you may need a box of kleenex.

The Look Of Eagles is what every great race horse has according to Walter Brennan in Kentucky. It's that gleam in the eye that you see in any athlete, human or equine, that tells you he's got heart. In the case of horses, heart enough to go the distance of a mile and a quarter, the set distance of the Kentucky Derby.

The third Oscar for Best Supporting Actor went to Walter Brennan for Kentucky as the 34 year old Brennan made up with white hair plays unreconstructed rebel Peter Goodwin, grand uncle to Loretta Young. This film set a standard for Brennan who played very little, but old codgers after that.

The leads in Kentucky are Loretta Young and Richard Greene who was no doubt brought to 20th Century Fox as a backup for Tyrone Power. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the film was developed as something for Power originally who co-starred with Young on a few occasions.

The two are three generations removed from the Civil War which split the families apart. In a prologue to the modern story, the head of the Dillon family sides with the Union and the head of the Goodwin clan goes with the Confederacy. Later on Douglass Dumbrill head of the Dillon family now an officer in the Union Army raids the Goodwin farm and the head of the Goodwin family is shot and killed and the thoroughbred horses they were raising are taken as war contraband. Young Bobs Watson sees all this and he grows up to be Walter Brennan.

When Greene speeds by in a car and catches sight of Loretta Young on a horse, it's love at first sight, but a forbidden love because of the family feud. Greene and Young have a rocky road ahead, not helped by the fact that he gives up the banking business and goes to work for the Goodwins under an alias because she won't give him the right time of a day if she knows he's one of the hated enemy.

The 1938 Kentucky Derby is worked into the plot where Calumnet Farms Lawrin ridden by Eddie Arcaro wins and Arcaro also gets a line in the film. Lawrin stands in for the three year old colt owned by one of the feuding families. But the win is also clouded by tragedy.

A lot of black players get into Kentucky, but sad to say in some truly stereotypical roles. It's probably why Kentucky is rarely seen these days. I hadn't seen it myself in about 35 years.

Still for Brennan's dominating performance and Loretta Young at her prettiest you can't go wrong with Kentucky.