Jour de chance

As a big Laurel and Hardy fan, I rented "Riding High" out of curiosity: Oliver Hardy makes a rare solo appearance here. Ollie is funny in his short cameo role, but his appearance is certainly not the only reason to see this film. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit.

Of course, I shouldn't have been too surprised. "Riding High" is directed by Frank Capra ("It's a Wonderful Life") and stars Bing Crosby. Briefly, Bing is a down-on-his-luck horse trainer trying to hit the big time with his one last chance: A horse named Broadway Bill. Yes, in many ways this is your typical sports underdog movie. There are, however, twists along the way. In fact, what happens in "the big race at the end" may very well take you by surprise.

A warning: This is the year 1950 and the "traditional" roles of men and women, not to mention blacks and whites, are clearly defined. If you can look beyond that, "Riding High" is a fun time.

Frank Capra's creativity must have been just about spent by the time he made this film. While it has a few charming moments, and many wonderful performers, Capra's outright recycling of not just the script but considerable footage from his first version of this story, Broadway Bill (1934), is downright shoddy. It is understandable that he would re-use footage from the climactic horse race, which is thrilling. But he uses entire dialogue scenes with minor actors, then brings back those actors and apparently expects us not to notice, for example, that Ward Bond is 14 years older! Unless you want to see one of the last appearances of Oliver Hardy, skip this one and watch Broadway Bill instead.

Pretty much a shot for shot remake of Broadway Bill, Riding High is one of those curious oddities where a filmmaker remade their own film. This isn't quite like Howard Hawks simply repeating himself (like Ceiling Zero becoming Only Angels Have Wings) or Hitchcock just seeing if he can make a better version (with the two The Man Who Knew Too Much films). Instead, this is Frank Capra, chastised by his sale of Liberty Films and becoming a contract director for Paramount, making something cheap and fast, heavily utilizing footage from Broadway Bill (anything written on it says it's the racing footage, but it's much more than the racing footage), and having no real creative reason for doing it. The only thing that seemed to ignite Capra was that his new leading man, Bing Crosby, loved horses unlike his old leading man, Warner Baxter.

Really, it's the exact same story with some very minor tweaks. In this one, instead of the main character, Dan (Crosby) being married to Margaret (Frances Gifford), eldest daughter of magnate J. L. Higgins (Charles Bickford), they're merely engaged, Margaret already having gone through a divorce. This would, in theory, make the machinations to get Dan and the youngest Higgins daughter, Alice (Coleen Gray), less complicated, but it surprisingly alleviates none of that. It still feels like this laborious process to get the two obviously in love people together.

The other major change is the introduction of a handful of songs, and they're fine. Gamely sung by Crosby and Gray, mostly, they're very simply staged on small sets with little to no dancing, and they're light diversions from the complete repeat of plot and character we had from the first film. Now, I'm very much in the camp that remakes are not inherently inferior to the originals (the aforementioned Only Angels Have Wings is very much superior to the original Ceiling Zero), but usually a remake should bring something new to the table. The only thing new here is Bing Crosby who easily sings a handful of songs and has a better rapport with the horses.

And somehow, I think Broadway Bill works a bit better. It's not like Broadway Bill is some Capra classic, but it functions well enough. I think that difference is because of the casting of the main character. The central role of Dan is really that of a conman who tried to go straight but can't step away from the tracks before he needs to con people out of the money repeatedly while trying to get Bill, his horse, into a race, ultimately any race, as his situation becomes increasingly desperate. Crosby is just to nice for the role in a way that Baxter wasn't. He feels more out of place, especially when he sings those little ditties like "Sunshine Cake", a song that simply stops because the three singing it devolve into chaos and it just needs to end (which feels more like a jam session gone wrong than a planned event), break through what little drama there is to distract. They're nice as they play, but they feel so out of place.

I'm not sure if this is an element of the retelling or simply the fact that this is now the second time I've seen this exact same story play out in almost exactly the same way, but the really episodic nature of the events are kind of jarring this time. There's precious little connective tissue as Dan, Professor Pettigrew (Raymond Walburn), and Whitey (Clarence Muse) fumble their way through efforts to raise money and the storm that gives Bill a cold just feel so much more disjointed this time.

It's well-documented that almost everything involving a racetrack field is from Broadway Bill, but I was surprised to see that most of Ward Bond's and Douglas Dumbrille's roles are from the earlier film as well, especially the late scenes when they manage a room full of telephones to take advantage of the rising odds on Bill's chances that make their own stakes on another horse more valuable. I don't count it against the film, but it is odd to see, especially since they're in the film earlier in shots filmed with Crosby where they're sixteen years older. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a problem with the film, but it's both weird to see and calls into question why the film was made at all if they're just going to recycle so much footage from the previous iteration.

I mean, there's racing footage or using footage from The Wooden Crosses in The Road to Glory, and then there's pulling what essentially amounts to an entire subplot from the previous film through the footage.

So, it's Broadway Bill with some songs and a central lead who doesn't seem to fit the film as well. I was surprised it kept the shockingly dour ending, but I guess they only had so much in the way of choice when it came to not being able to film much at all at the race track. I'd call it a step down, but a minor one.

...when he remade Broadway BILL (1934) as RIDING HIGH (1950). Recasting Bing Crosby as DAN BROOKS did not help a screenplay that was 'dated' in 34 let alone 50. This sad film has entire scenes lifted from the original with many of the supporting cast repeating their roles, unless they were dead. Though being older did not seem to matter to the Director. Nor that the Cars and Clothes in the background plates from 1934 did not match up too 1950s' standards. Not even 'der Bingel' singing can redeem this effort.

We rated both the original and the remake IMDb Four****Stars. Frank's touch was long gone and all that was left was CAPRA-CORN. That did not stop Mr. Capra though. After floundering around the 50's making some educational documentaries he wound up his career remaking LADY FOR A DAY (1933) as POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES (1961). Again a fine cast was let down on that IMDb Six******Star effort compared too the originals Eight********Stars. Sometimes it is better to quit while you were still ahead, right after STATE OF THE UNION (1948).

First, let me say "nuts" to the cinema snobs who carp about Capra recycling footage from Broadway BILL in order to bring this picture in on budget. If that's what it took, so be it. In my opinion, RIDING HIGH is far superior to the original picture in many ways. First, the original script was followed closely but was peppered with several "toppers". Second, the comedy sequences - especially the racetrack swindle scene - are much funnier in RIDING HIGH. It was a genuine stroke of genius to give habitual track inhabitant Oliver Hardy the role of the poor sap who sinks it all on "Doughboy". Most importantly, Bing Crosby is, as Capra states in his autobio, right as rain for the role of Dan Brooks. Warner Baxter was decidedly out-of-place and his dour personality put a serious dent in the dramatic success of Broadway BILL. Sure, Colleen Gray is not Myrna Loy. But she is wonderfully natural in this picture and a wonderful mate for Bing. Also vastly improved in this version is the relationship between Dan and Whitey (Clarence Muse in both pictures). There is no real chemistry between Baxter and Muse (Baxter even gives him a malicious kick in the pants at one point) whereas Crosby and Muse exude genuine affection for one another. Another big plus is Percy Kilbride as the feed man. The scene at the track where he tries to get his bill paid is one of the most hysterical examples of frustration in a character I've ever seen. And please don't complain about the songs. Burke and Van Heusen wrote outstanding material for Crosby and these songs fit the characters and situations just fine. And it's nice to have "Sunshine Cake", except for a few bars, sung on-set and not pre-recorded. Lynne Overman may have a slight edge as a Damon Runyon type, but Bill Demarest as Happy gets much bigger laughs. All-in-all, this is one of my very favorite Capra pictures. Bravo to the great director for hitting on the idea of remaking it, all to the better.