Burly supporting player Barton MacLane gets a rare lead (a romantic lead yet!) in this low-rent rethink of DARK HAZARD/’34, an offbeat Edward G. Robinson gambling pic centered on dog racing. With MacLane, Ann Sheridan & Peggy Bates in for Eddie G., Glenda Farrell & Genevieve Tobin, this little programmer loses a lot of interest swapping out greyhounds for thoroughbred horses. It also misses the Pre-Code naughtiness of the earlier film. The basic idea is the same: MacLane, whose fortunes are always going up and down at the track, at gambling tables, even pitching horseshoes, tries going straight with a regular job when he falls for disapproving small town gal Bates, but keeps falling into bad old habits, egged on by Sheridan’s lowdown racetrack broad. Not a lot of chemistry going on here, Sheridan in the midst of a star-building work-up (seven pics in ‘37) far too fresh for the part (or MacLane) while Bates is a complete non-starter. But it did give uncredited producer Bryan Foy, Warners’ King of the ‘Bs’, a chance to hire kid brother Charley Foy (two of vaudeville’s 'Seven Little Foys') as a bargain basement horse owner.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In spite of that irresistible title, not a drop of wine in the pic.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Stick with DARK HAZARD. (see below)
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