Silks and Saddles (1936)

Director:

Robert F. Hill

Writers:

William Buchanan (story)
Basil Dickey (continuity)

Release Date:

14 December 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

THE FASTEST, FUNNIEST, RACING PICTURE YOU'VE EVER SEEN! (original poster- all caps)

Plot:

College student Jimmy Shaw inherits a racehorse, named Lightning Lad, and sells stock to fellow students in order to obtain funds for racing the horse...

Plot Keywords:

Racing | Race | Student | Horse | Gambler

Cast

Bruce Bennett	...	Jimmy Shay (as Herman Brix)
Toby Wing	...	Marion Braddock / Jane Smith
Fuzzy Knight	...	Bottsie Botsworth
Trixie Friganza	...	Aunt Agatha Braddock
Frank Melton	...	Les Winters
Robert McClung	...	T. Midge Connolly
Bess Flowers	...	Les Winters' Date
Roy Thompson	...	Trainer
Roger Williams	...	Henchman
William Buchanan	...	Gambler
Flash the Horse	...	Lightning Lad

Also Known As:

Blue Blood (USA) (TV title)
Lightning Lad (USA) (TV title)

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2947) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Filming Locations:

Lazy A Ranch, Santa Susana, California, USA

Company:

Victory Pictures Corporation

Soundtrack:

I Took My Girl to the Races

Sam Katzman saves $15.00.

Producer Sam Katzman, never one for spending foolish money on a film, cast himself as a cigar-smoking gambler and director Robert Hill as a stableman, and beat a couple of central-casting players out of their $7.50 day-contract roles. No, Bunky, these weren't hoity-toity Cameo appearances...Sam didn't last forty years as an independent producer by not knowing how to cut some expense corners.

This Katzman opus finds college-student Jimmy Shay (Herman Brix)inheriting a race horse named "Lightning Lad." He also inherits a goat named "Adolph" (probably played by a goat named Adolph), and Adolph's role is central to the plot as he and "Lightning Lad" are good friends, and "Lightning Lad" will only run fast when his buddy "Adolph" is present. (Forget the mention that "Adolph" was played by a goat named "Adolph", lest some dolt comes along and changes Adolph's role name to Himself.) "Lightning Lad" wins a few races, and an Oil-Can Harry-type named Les Winters (Frank Melton) comes along and tries to buy the horse for his fiancée, Marian Braddock (Toby Wing), a spoiled rich-girl who owns Braddock Stables. Jimmy refuses to sell for a couple of reasons; first, he has devised a plan to incorporate "Lightning Lad" and sell stock to the students at his college so he doesn't need the money. But, secondly and foremost, he is still carrying a childhood grudge against Marian for a childhood episode in which she treated him "badly." Jimmy just talks about this, so there is no flashback sequence depicting this bad treatment, as Sam also did not believe in wasting money money in filming as sequence when the actor who was already getting paid could just talk about it. That was really a shame as it would have been interesting to see just which child-actress of the time could have played bombshell Toby Wing as a child.

But any character played by Toby Wing isn't going to take No for an answer to any question, since she fears that "Lightning Lad" will beat her own entry in the big, upcoming Handicap Race, so she vamps the stockholders into selling out. The stockholders were all male students, so no need, for those interested in such things, to run out and get this film in order to see Tony vamping co-eds.

Anyway, some gamblers get involved and wishing to hedge their bets against "Lightning Lad" decide to kidnap either the horse or the goat. But Toby gets religion and regeneration, all in one fell swoop, and she helps Jimmy foil this dastardly plan.

A "keyword" for this film could be "Debut Film"...for Adolph the Goat.