The Homestretch

Leslie (Maureen O'Hara) seems to have a good life. She's rich, pretty and has a fiance who is a diplomat. However, when Jock (Cornel Wilde) enters her life, she throws away common sense and marries him instead...without really knowing him all that well. At first, everything seems okay but over time, it becomes obvious that Jock is a man-child...an irresponsible guy who is interested in buying racing horses but isn't so concerned whether he can afford them and their extravagant lifestyle. This worries Leslie and Jock promises to change, though being a man-child, Jock doesn't change in the least. Eventually, she gets sick of his irresponsible ways and leaves him. But there's something about the racing and the horses that Leslie cannot completely give up this life.

"The Homestretch" has a fatal flaw...that characters are difficult to care for and I found myself not caring if they grew up or not. Plus, the chemistry between Wilde and O'Hara certainly wasn't enough to overcome this plot problem. The film seems to want the audience to root for them...I certainly didn't.

By the way, there were two small things that annoyed me in this one. First, casting Henry Stephenson as a South American was ridiculous and his 'accent' was pretty limp. Second, considering the film is about horse racing, you'd think they'd pronounce the name of the race track 'Bowie' correctly. A bit of research and that couldn't have happened.

The bottom line is that this is a nice looking film with really superficial characters and plot. It's very watchable but really pretty shallow and predictable.