TCM Goes to the Races

[heavylifting]

This coming Monday, September 26, Turner Classic Movies is devoting its daytime viewing hours (5 am-7pm Central Time) to movies about horse racing. First up is "Seabiscuit," which is not the version made 10 years ago or so with Tobey Maguire and Gary Stevens, but rather the 1949 edition starring Shirley Temple, which is described as "a fictionalized account."

These films are all from the 1930s and 40s, several of which star Mickey Rooney as a jockey. "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry," which I've seen several times, was the first film in which he appeared with Judy Garland.

Also, many of these movies filmed the racing scenes at Santa Anita or used footage of actual races therefrom; the San Gabriel Mountains in the background is the giveaway.

Unfortunately, one of the films they are not showing is Saratoga (1937), which was Jean Harlow's final picture; she died during production and a double was used for the few scenes she hadn't shot. The double would either appear with her back to the camera or looking through binoculars. Anyhow, that's not on the menu on Monday. Worth a look, though, whenever it does come up, which is about once every three years or so.

Here's a link to the schedule -- http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.html?tz=CST&sdate=2016-09-26