The Unwelcome Stranger (1935) User Reviews

Horse racing, superstition and sentiment keep this nice drama on track.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 29 May 2019]

The word "orphan" is dirty language for horse racing owner Jack Holt, believing in all sorts of ridiculous superstitious beliefs that prevent his horses from winning the big races. For the lame Jackie Searle, he believes that the brace on his leg has kept him from being adopted, sharing his best friend chosen and certain that he would have been chosen had the perspective mother not seen his brace. When he finds out that the orphanages prize horse is about to be euthanized, she arranges for local horse owner Jack Holt to take it in, and Holt's wife, the beautiful Mona Barrie, is instantly taken with Searle. Realizing that he is a foundling, Barrie urges Searle to keep this a secret, but somehow it slipped out and Holt's growing feelings for the boy begin to change. Meanwhile, Searle and stable manager Ralph Morgan realize that jockey Frankie Darro and Holt's assistant, Bradley Page, are setting it up so Holt's horse loses the race, and this gives Searle the opportunity to prove that he isn't a jinx after all.

While this is far from a tearjerker, there are many moments that are touching and a few that are only briefly cloying. I didn't see a reason to name the black stable boy Sam McDaniel "Pork Chop", and Searle is often directed to sulk like Jackie Cooper. Holt, a hard-looking man with a sentimental side, gets to show many ranges of his character, and Barrie is an absolute angel. All of the actors do really good jobs in creating characters that somewhat cliched manage to be believable in spite of that. It has a glossy look, and never lags, making it a sleeper film nobody has ever heard of that is sure to steal many hearts.

Orphans, Horses And Jack Holt

[boblipton · 5/10 · 23 June 2019]

Jackie Searl is an orphan with a gimpy leg. He is succored by Mona Barrie, who's married to Jack Holt, a man who came up as an orphan and is now the owner of a good racing stables. He's a hunch investor with a lot of superstitions, especially one about orphans being bad luck, so Jackie being an orphan is kept from him. He thinks there's another jinx keeping him back. He hasn't had a winning bet in a month and is beginning to sell off his horses, even as Jackie shows rapport and ability. Holt's jinx isn't orphans or nailing up horse shoes the wrong way. It's Bradley Page, who takes Holt's bets to spread around the bookies, and then pays off the jockeys and pockets the cash.

It's another of the profitable programmers that Jack Holt starred in throughout the 1930s for Columbia. It's a decent, if run-of-the-mill script with everyone performing their bits well enough. Ralph Morgan, as Holt's stable man, takes the cap for a pleasant and caring performance.