Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This film had been shown on local Cable TV in the late 1990s, but I had missed out on its handful of broadcasts; in any case, the main reason that would have drawn me to it was the fact that amiable character actor Walter Brennan won the second of three Supporting Oscars (a record, also because all occurred within a five-year span!) for his performance here. In retrospect, while his contribution is easily the best thing about the movie, I would argue that Brennan's fellow nominees were perhaps more deserving of the accolade – since, for one thing, none would ever win eventually and they each involved more demanding roles! For the record, I have yet to catch Basil Rathbone in IF I WERE KING (as the French King Louis XI), but did get to see John Garfield in FOUR DAUGHTERS (his renowned debut), Gene Lockhart in ALGIERS (though Malta's own Joseph Calleia, in his personal favorite part, was no less impressive!) and Robert Morley in MARIE ANTOINETTE (as Louis XVI).The film is nevertheless also notable for its gleaming Technicolor: that said, the thin narrative of a Southern Romeo and Juliet-type feud was hardly worthy of such exclusive attention, especially since its horse- racing backdrop had already been (more) successfully dealt with in monochrome in such classics as Frank Capra's Broadway BILL (1934) and the Marx Bros. vehicle A DAY AT THE RACES (1937)! Anyway, following a nicely atmospheric prologue set during the Civil War (the participation of Karen Morley and Douglass Dumbrille is restricted to this sequence), we fast-forward to contemporary times as their offsprings, Richard Greene and Loretta Young respectively, end up romancing each other without the latter knowing the former's true identity; he even trains their sole remaining horse (actually owed to them by Greene's banker father) after the patriarch blows away all their money on cotton whose price "nose-dived" soon after!Brennan is the man's brother, a connoisseur of thoroughbreds but who is deemed an eccentric on account of his irascible behaviour – indeed, while Young had her eyes set on the champion stud in the Greene family stable, her uncle persuades the heroine to settle for the second-best – because he saw in its eyes what he calls "The Look Of Eagles", the title of the story which inspired the film! Incidentally, the scene where the stallion is chosen constitutes an undeniable highlight – the crooked groom hides the two horses from their enemies, but Eddie "Rochester" Anderson's singing the champion's praises are enthusiastically joined in by Brennan, egging him on into revealing its whereabouts! Despite the subject matter, only two contests are incorporated into the plot (and with the first being only heard on the radio in the ticket booth); both are won by the horse Brennan had faith in…but its triumph at the all- important derby is too-briefly enjoyed by him, since he suffers a heart attack and expires at the racetrack. Unsurprisingly, 'uneducated' black servants abound throughout – notably a chicken thief expelled from one household and taken in by another. Finally, I guess I ought to point out that this was thrice remade – as DOWN ARGENTINE WAY (1940), HOME IN INDIANA (1944; also featuring Brennan) and APRIL LOVE (1957) – but, it goes without saying, I have no immediate interest in checking them out...

The Yankee ransacking prelude more or less spells out the eventuality that years later Young is going to fall for Greene and that their respective families are going to trample the path of true love. Quite literally, as the updated story is now played out against a bluegrass background.Get yourself into Hollywood mode and dispense with the logistics of script and story, and instead enjoy everything else. The performances, even though they embody strictly cliché and (predictably racial) caricature, are still marvellous for those who love a Fox-style wallow - Brennan won that year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The film is generally well and pacily edited, and the racing sequences are particularly exciting.The real star of this show though, for me, was the sublime photography which I can honestly say offered the most richest and well-preserved example of pre-40s 3-strip Technicolor I have so far seen. Even after more than 50 years, its luminescence (at least in this Channel 4 print) was breathtakingly striking and full of lustre, with yellow in particular registering far more strongly than I have previously seen in a 30s Technicolor movie, and natural outdoor verdance looking as if it had been sprayed with kiwi fruit dye. No doubt deployed deliberately to enhance the otherwise routine nature of the story, it would still take a considerable kick of horsepower to elevate the film to the grandeur of, say, 'Gone With The Wind', to which it bears more than a passing dramatic resemblance.

Walter Brennan set a standard for supporting actors with this perfect equine movie. You actually believe that the 38-year-old Brennan is a wizened 68-year-old track veteran. Young Loretta is equally winning in her starring debut. This is the classic movie that all the cliches copied.

Tarnation, that Loretta Young is a mighty purty filly, and she darn near always wears a fetchin' ribbon, or sprig o' ivy, in her hair t' show off this here newfangled Technicolor process, y'all. But warn't thar a War Between the States? No'm. Tha's why ya still got yer two kinds o' nigra. First, thar's yer field nigra -- when he's not happy 'n' singin' like a chil', he's lazy 'n' stealin'. Then thar's yer house nigras -- a right reg'lar passel o' Uncle Toms 'n' Aunt Jemimas.Surely this is not intended to represent the reality of Kentucky in 1938? Which century is this supposed to be? Blacks in the '30's had good reason to be concerned about how they were portrayed in Hollywood films. Then there's the whole silliness of the film's basic premise -- feudin', mansion-dwelling, horse-breeding aristocrats. And I certainly don't want to hear "My Old Kentucky Home" again any time soon.In spite of everything, this corn pone still managed to make for an entertaining horseracing yarn however. Yes'm, it did.Moroni Olsen plays his usual stalwart patriarch, and Walter Brennan is convincingly cussed 'n' ornery.There is an unusual documentary sequence in mid-film showing and extolling the great racehorses of Kentucky, Man-O'-War included. And all in glorious early Technicolor.