She Went to the Races

One of the most enjoyable films of the 1940s was "Ball of Fire". Barbara Stanwyck spends most of the movie hanging out with an adorable group of aging professors and finds love with handsome Gary Cooper. Well, in "She Went to the Races", Frances Gifford also spends most of the film hanging out with an adorable group of aging professors and finds love with handsome James Craig....but the movie is hardly a classic. More a time-passer if you ask me.

When the story begins, Professor Pecke (Edmund Gwenn) learns that his faculty position at the university has been eliminated. The other professors decide to try to save his job by betting at the horse races in order to fund this faculty position...and they use scientific methods to accurately guess the results. In the meantime, Professor Wotters (Gifford) falls for one of the horse owners (James Craig). Unfortunately, another woman (Ava Gardner) also has her sights set on him.

This story is only okay...mostly because while the professors are cute and wonderful supporting actors, the story itself is only okay and nothing special. Watchable but hardly a film you need to rush to see.