Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s consummate underplaying highlights this simple, oh so urbane story of chicanery at the race track in Ireland.
Addressed traditionally as "the honorable Mr. McHugh", Fairbanks plays a horse breeder and trainer down on his luck who has lost his self-confidence, while still going through the motions of maintaining a false front as an adviser and trainer with some self-respect retained. He gets himself into an impossible bind when he agrees to a bit of odds-fixing in an important race while simultaneously helping an American buyer (played by Eunice Grayson) entering one of his bred horses named Mistral prepare for the same race. It's a classic case of you can't win for losing.
The pyrrhic victory, with actual on-location racing footage used, is well-handled and even the villain of the piece, played by Cyril Cusack, has a level of urbanity no longer in fashion as UK in subsequent decades has moved lock stock and barrel into the thick-ear Guy Ritchie school of crime story broadcasting.
Addressed traditionally as "the honorable Mr. McHugh", Fairbanks plays a horse breeder and trainer down on his luck who has lost his self-confidence, while still going through the motions of maintaining a false front as an adviser and trainer with some self-respect retained. He gets himself into an impossible bind when he agrees to a bit of odds-fixing in an important race while simultaneously helping an American buyer (played by Eunice Grayson) entering one of his bred horses named Mistral prepare for the same race. It's a classic case of you can't win for losing.
The pyrrhic victory, with actual on-location racing footage used, is well-handled and even the villain of the piece, played by Cyril Cusack, has a level of urbanity no longer in fashion as UK in subsequent decades has moved lock stock and barrel into the thick-ear Guy Ritchie school of crime story broadcasting.