Don Ameche decides to live life on his own terms. He quits his job as an accountant and buys a colt. He doesn't have a place to keep it. Catherine McLeod offers her apartment. That doesn't work out. However, the horse, Gallant Man, wins every race for the soft-spoken Ameche and his bride. But when Ameche retires the horse rather than carry 140 pounds in handicap, and Miss McLeod tells Ameche not to come home, he goes on the skids.

Frank Borzage's movie of the love between a man and a horse has echoes of his mystical films of the late 1920s and early 1930s, but at times it seems as if Miss McLeod is the third wheel. Still, Ameche pulls off his role by speaking softly and sounding sincere, and there's Roscoe Karns, Joe Frisco, and Frankie Darro to make the whole thig seem possible for 97 minutes. Tony Gaudio offers some great footage of horse races.

Sweet, sentimental romantic drama about a good man who sincerely loves his wife but who's gambling addiction continually sabotages their relationship. The first 20 minutes or so is fun and engaging meet-cute romantic comedy, but then the movie turns dark.

In 2014 the film became available for the first time on DVD in it's original length. After initial release in 1947, had only been seen rarely and in a heavily edited version. The DVD image and sound are fairly good; it looks to be a new video transfer made from a decent quality archival print.

The production looks surprisingly plush, given it was made for Republic Pictures.

I found the film well acted, especially by Don Ameche, whose unusual for him, calm and underplayed performance made the story a lot more credible than it would have been otherwise. The female lead gave a believable performance, but lacked star quality that would have made her character's tribulations more watchable.

Unfortunately, I found the film slow moving and overly sentimental. I became bored, especially with the overly repetitious plot.

There's lots of lost weekends for gambling addict Don Ameche, starting off simply as the owner of an adorable colt who ends up becoming a racing horse champion. Ameche happened to meet future wife Cathy O'Donnell on Christmas Eve, homeless and needing to find a place for the feisty young horse to keep warm, and in a bit of comedy, O'Donnell mistakingly agreed to take him in.

But that's pretty much all for the comedy, even with Roscoe Karns as their wisecracking taxi driver pal in fantastic support. It's Karns who keeps trying to slap some sense into Ameche who starts off as a loving husband but is changed quickly by success. He's not there when his wife gives birth to their son, and when he does show up, it's to present her with dirt from outside the mansion in Beverly Hills he's just won from gambling.

A powerful drama that takes a different kind of addiction and presents it from the point of view of success rather than failure, and Ameche plays the role to the hilt. O'Donnell is great too, strong enough to stand up to Ameche for not being there and being the strength of a shaky home, especially when the son takes ill. Karns gets the best role however, not afraid to let Ameche have it when he needs to hear the truth, but completely sympathetic to the situation without being judgmental. A beautiful big budget A film from Republic smartly directed by the legendary Frank Borzage.