vincentlynch-moonoi I'll have to begin with the biggest negative to this film. Do we really need yet another film where young Bobs Watson demonstrates his ability to cry hysterically????? In "Boys Town" it was touching, but it got sickening after a while.Beyond that, this is a really good film. Particularly because one of its supporting actors, and in my view the real star of the film -- Walter Brennan -- who at 40 years of age was able to skillfully play the grandfather (who had been played in childhood by Bobs Watson).The titled star of the film -- Loretta Young -- doesn't arrive until 18 minutes into the film, but I think that tells you something about the intent here -- to make a good film, not just highlight the stars. She's beautiful, and one can see why she was a star. This was one of her few color films. The other star is Richard Greene, a British actor who was building to a great career until the war intervened, and never quite got it back together after the conflict. He's very good here.What isn't so good any longer is the color, which has faded somewhat and is a bit uneven, particularly on Loretta Young's face. Almost makes this look like a colorized film, but it's real Technicolor. And, the age and lack of restoration has made the print shown on TCM not crisp. However, the original production standards here were high, and it's noticeable.This film is far better than its listing description, which makes it sound like a hillbilly film with two feuding families. Yes, the families are feuding, but they're not hillbillies...they're the horse-racing elite of Kentucky -- families divided years before by the Civil War (that part of the story is highlighted in the first 15 minutes of the film, then it forwards to the "present" time...where Loretta Young and Richard Greene come in).Films all have happy endings. Right? Wrong. The ending here is bittersweet, at best. And throughout the picture, 3 key characters die. But again, that proves that the producers here wanted a solid story, and they deliver.A fine film. Watch it!

bkoganbing 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.

redhairedlad I saw this advertised for the THIS network and seemed like it would be a horse-racing-genre movie. This is one of my favorite genres and I've come to expect gritty, fleshed out characters (even Runyonesque in the best ones), both on the owner/trainer side and (even more so) on the jockey/groom/gambler side. Here you will find none of that. First, they movie seems to be confused about which side of the Civil War Kentucky was on (They remained in the Union and fielded some of the finest units). Next, the cast in this movie is wonderful. It includes Walter Brennen, one of my all time favorites — I never saw a bad Brennen performance until now. And Loretta Young could be a fine actress — always ladylike but sexy and very subtle in her acting.But Butler's blocking for the scenes is sophomoric and wooden. The performances he gets from this fine cast comes across like a so-so high school drama club. If you love "Seabiscuit," "Black Stallion," "Let It Ride," "Broadway Bill," "Stablemates," don't get your hopes up for this one!

Varlaam 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.