The Story of Seabiscuit (Snap Case)
by David Butler
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DVD details
Actor: Barry Fitzgerald, Donald MacBride, Lon McCallister, Rosemary DeCamp, Shirley TempleDirector: David Butler
Cinematographer: Wilfred M. Cline
Editor: Irene Morra
Producer: William Jacobs
Writer: John Taintor Foote
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of The Story of Seabiscuit (Snap Case)
DVD Review: Stay far away if you're looking for historical accuracy.
Summary: 2 Stars
The Story of Seabiscuit (David Butler, 1949)
In her landmark book Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand refers to this 1949 Shirley Temple vehicle as "unforgivably awful." I assumed at the time she was talking about the historical inaccuracy rampant in movies like this at the time and promptly forgot about it. I have since married a certified Shirley Temple fanatic, and so when this popped up on Turner Classic Movies a couple of weeks ago, I DVRed it. We started watching it, and Hillenbrand's comment returned to me tenfold. While I didn't hate it quite as much (okay, nearly as much) as Hillenbrand seems to have, I'm guessing that's because I've spent far more time in the celluloid gutter. You want awful movies? I'll give you awful movies. The Story of Seabiscuit is not an awful movie, though to be fair it doesn't miss the mark by too much.
Temple plays Margaret O'Hara, a winsome Irish lass (with an accent that defines "variable") who comes to America with her grandfather Sean (The Quiet Man's Barry Fitzgerald) after he retires from training jumpers thanks to a horrible accident at the Grand National. He takes to flat racing well enough, though he has a lot of affection for a gangly two-year-old no one else on the farm seems all that taken with. Eventually, he finds himself working for industrialist Charles Howard (TV character actor Pierre Watkin), whom he convinces to buy the little colt no one wanted, and from there, well, history.
Except that the history isn't accurate, and it's bathed in the kind of hideous melodrama you'd expect. (Scene: Shirley Temple tears up when granddad's talking about the Grand National. Scene: Shirley Temple tells the jockey pursuing her she doesn't date jockeys because of that incident. Scene: Granddad takes Shirley Temple to the track to see Seabiscuit race, and guess who's on his back? If you can't draw the conclusion, you haven't seen enough movies.) There's a great deal of scenery-chewing from all involved, a number of horses playing Seabiscuit who don't really look alike (I won't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure there was one race where he was played by both a bay and a chestnut), and a truly silly story surrounding it all. But it's watchable in its stupidity, which is something I can't say for about a quarter of the movies I've watched this week. **
DVD Review: ebynum review
Summary: 4 Stars
I rate this movie great, because I love anything Mrs. Black (shirley Temple) was in the early years. DVD Review: Vehicle for Shirley Temple only
Summary: 1 Stars
This is probably the worst horse racing film I've ever seen (another contender for that title is one about Black Gold that showed Anthony Quinn couldn't act worth a darn when he started out). There are almost no facts in it about Seabiscuit. The acting and writing is low-quality. The Irish trainer stuff is pure fiction. I wonder if most of the real people involved in Seabiscuit's life refused to sign releases, so they blatantly fictionalized them. The bizarre thing about this film was that it was made when most Americans knew Seabiscuit's story, so they had to know this was full of nonsense. This one isn't worth your time or money.
DVD Review: national velvet movie
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this for my mom, took way too long to get it, then it didn't work. It would be a hassle to return and I found it for 7 bucks less at target. Never again.DVD Review: Horse Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
National Velvet, Story of Seabiscuit,Black Beauty --- All great movies for a "horse loving" granddaughter!
Description of The Story of Seabiscuit (Snap Case)
A woman falls for a jockey, but she will only marry him if he gives up horse racing.Although it blithely rewrites the history of a legendary race horse, The Story of Seabiscuit is still an appealing example of Technicolor entertainment from Hollywood's studio system. It wasn't unusual for contract players (in this case Shirley Temple, Barry Fitzgerald, and Lon McAllister) to play fictional characters in fact-based stories, since factual fidelity was often considered a secondary priority. That's why this blandly charming drama makes no mention of the legendary Seabiscuit's actual trainer Tom Smith or jockey Red Pollard, who were duly recognized in 2003's Seabiscuit, based on Laura Hillenbrand's historically accurate 2001 bestseller. McAllister plays a loose rendition of Pollard (including his accidental chest injury), wooing a race-phobic nurse (Temple) while "the Biscuit" is trained for championship by luck-of-the-Irish Fitzgerald. A bit quaint by modern standards, but ironically, this is the only movie that features the real Seabiscuit in action, since vintage race footage is included in the black-and-white newsreel interludes. Plus, a bonus featurette from 1946 offers a still-valid primer on the backstage details of horseracing. --Jeff Shannon
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