Songs by Alfred Newman (music) and Jacques Surmagne (lyrics) are "Viendras Tu Ce Soir" (Presle) and "La Seine" (Presle). Song by Alfred Newman (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics): "Stranger in the Night" (Presle). The 20th Century-Fox Studio Orchestra conducted by Alfred Newman. Producer: Casey Robinson.
Copyright 17 March 1950 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 17 March 1950. U.S. release: March 1950. U.K. release: 5 June 1950. Australian release: 7 July 1950. 7,733 feet. 86 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Veteran jockey Dan Butler wins a steeplechase race in Italy, although he had arranged to throw it for racketeer Louis Bork. That night Bork's men rough up Dan, but the police arrive in time to prevent any real harm. Some days later, Dan and his young son, Joe, arrive in Paris to look up an old friend of Dan's. The friend, they learn, has died, but they meet his young widow, Paule. She tells Dan that her husband was killed because of the trouble Dan had brought him, and she asks him to leave. A few days pass, and Dan encounters Bork again. The crook tells Dan that he is still waiting for the money owed him on the race Dan failed to throw in Italy.
NOTES: A smidgin of trivia from Fox's desperate publicity department: "Studio accountant Albert Valentino, brother of Rudolph Valentino, helped Garfield with his Italian lines in this film."
English-language film debut of Micheline Presle.
COMMENT: This movie struck a chord neither with the critics nor the public. The critics - Hemingway fans to the man - objected to the way writer-producer Casey Robinson had expanded and redefined the original story by adding the Presle character and changing the ending. Sniffed Robert Hatch in The New Republic: "The movie is a sentimental tearjerker, a kind of literature to which Hemingway is not addicted."
His once clamorous public had still not forgiven Garfield for accepting a subsidiary role in Gentleman's Agreement, so the movie floundered at the box-office despite its many solidly entertaining qualities.
True, it opens most unpromisingly. But once you get past all the flag-waving paranoia of the earlier scenes (which can all be blamed on Robinson - jingoism was never one of Hemingway's vices) and if (a big "if") you can accept John Garfield as the decade's most unlikely looking jockey, this is a fairly entertaining racecourse romantic thriller with Luther Adler as an irredeemable villain and the charming Micheline Presle as the heroine.
Although a 2nd unit was sent to Italy and Paris, the studio inserts are disconcertingly obvious. A better attempt at integration is made with the climactic race, part of which was evidently staged for real.
SYNOPSIS: Veteran jockey Dan Butler wins a steeplechase race in Italy, although he had arranged to throw it for racketeer Louis Bork. That night Bork's men rough up Dan, but the police arrive in time to prevent any real harm. Some days later, Dan and his young son, Joe, arrive in Paris to look up an old friend of Dan's. The friend, they learn, has died, but they meet his young widow, Paule. She tells Dan that her husband was killed because of the trouble Dan had brought him, and she asks him to leave. A few days pass, and Dan encounters Bork again. The crook tells Dan that he is still waiting for the money owed him on the race Dan failed to throw in Italy.
NOTES: A smidgin of trivia from Fox's desperate publicity department: "Studio accountant Albert Valentino, brother of Rudolph Valentino, helped Garfield with his Italian lines in this film."
English-language film debut of Micheline Presle.
COMMENT: This movie struck a chord neither with the critics nor the public. The critics - Hemingway fans to the man - objected to the way writer-producer Casey Robinson had expanded and redefined the original story by adding the Presle character and changing the ending. Sniffed Robert Hatch in The New Republic: "The movie is a sentimental tearjerker, a kind of literature to which Hemingway is not addicted."
His once clamorous public had still not forgiven Garfield for accepting a subsidiary role in Gentleman's Agreement, so the movie floundered at the box-office despite its many solidly entertaining qualities.
True, it opens most unpromisingly. But once you get past all the flag-waving paranoia of the earlier scenes (which can all be blamed on Robinson - jingoism was never one of Hemingway's vices) and if (a big "if") you can accept John Garfield as the decade's most unlikely looking jockey, this is a fairly entertaining racecourse romantic thriller with Luther Adler as an irredeemable villain and the charming Micheline Presle as the heroine.
Although a 2nd unit was sent to Italy and Paris, the studio inserts are disconcertingly obvious. A better attempt at integration is made with the climactic race, part of which was evidently staged for real.