Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

mark.waltz The success of "National Velvet" just a few years before brought a slew of movies about horse racing. If it wasn't fictional stories written by Damon Runyon or starring the Bowery Boys, it was real life hero horses with semi-fictional variations of Seabiscuit or Black Beauty or Dan Patch, the off-spring of the equally famous Joe Patch who became even more of a legend. This drama tells more of the owner's story, here played by Dennis O'Keefe.A scientist by career, he becomes distracted from his promising career when his father bequeaths him the young colt he christens Dan and turns into the biggest champion of his day. This causes issues with his haughty wife (Ruth Warrick) and creates a bond with the sweet Gail Russell. Charlotte Greenwood is wise and loving as O'Keefe's aunt. Warrick had already played several variations of the cold fishwife, and unlike her daytime role of matriarch Phoebe Tyler, this character lacks humor and the heart that Warrick instilled in the usually pompous queen of "All My Children". She has an amusing opening scene where she is being fitted into a dress with open windows at ground level, and keeps getting interrupted by intruders who stop by to tell her that her old beau, O'Keefe, has returned. Rather slow moving and unremarkable, this is rather standard late '40s fare that was better served in the same year's " The Red Pony" which had the advantage of color photography. Russell adds some spirit as the sweet but earthy girl who helps bring O'Keefe out of his shadow as the husband of a character identical to Joan Crawford's Harriet Craig, complete with a racist attitude towards some farmhands she encounters much to her disgust. It is moments like that which really make you think, but I really wanted to see more of the horse. After all, he's the titled character, and he is basically supporting.

bigcheese-8 The film is really only a little about Dan Patch. It's more about the relationship of the great horse's owners, and that is largely fictionalized.David Palmer (Dennis O'Keefe) comes home to find that his father, Dan Palmer (Henry Hull), has purchased another trotting horse, named Zelica. She has great potential, but is injured in her first race and retired to being a brood mare. Her first foal is named Dan Patch, after her owner and after his sire, Joe Patchen. Ben Lathrop (John Hoyt) and his tomboy daughter Cissy (Gail Russell), who has a huge crush on David, are hired as trainers. David's wife, Ruth (Ruth Warwick), is a social climber who has no interest in his horses, only in improving her status among the elite of Indianapolis. After Dan Palmer dies, David takes over running the farm as a hobby and turns it into a training stable with Ben and Cissy in charge. A financial setback causes Dave to sell Dan Patch to M. W. Savage (in August 1902, according to the telegram in the film). The greater history of Dan Patch's popularity is covered in the final six minutes of the film. There are some good trotting scenes in the process, but the melodramatic story contradicts the title.In reality, Dan Patch was owned by Dan Messner and trained by Johnny Wattles. Manley Sturgis bought Dan Patch in 1900, and sold him to Marion Willis Savage of Minnesota in 1902. Savage was the man who toured Dan Patch throughout the country in a private rail car, capitalizing on the horse's fame by branding everyday products with the Dan Patch name.

ccthemovieman-1 Yes, generally this was a "nice" classic-era tale, the kind you don't often see post-1960s film but as a big, big fan of horse racing, I was disappointed.Since "Dan Patch" has such a famous name in his sport, I was hoping to see all the details on film. Instead, what I got was mainly melodrama, a story about a guy (Dennis O'Keefe as "David Palmer") married to a social- climbing wife (Ruth Warrick as "Ruth Treadwell") but really more interested in another woman. The latter, "Cissy Lathrop," is a nicer, warmer lady whom the male lead should have married in the first place, but, she didn't come along early enough in the man's life. He had already committed to the annoying and too ambitious "Ruth."Anyway, the only good thing about the romance angle was seeing the pretty face of Gail Russell (Cissy), but I'd rather have witnessed a lot more horse racing story in here than what was found. By the way, has there ever been a stable hand that looked Russell? I doubt it. At least she, the old harness racing buggies, a few of the racing scenes and fairgrounds-type atmosphere were all nostalgic. But, it really wasn't much of a "sports film," which was I hoped to see.

Bubbi A good family film with a lovely performance from Gail Russell. It is a fine film for race fans. It will entertain the younger set also.