Subscope

A movie I recorded off of TCM several months ago because it sounded interesting was a 1956 movie called Glory, which has nothing to do with the same-named, better-known movie about black soldiers in the Civil War. It's airing on TCM tomorrow (Mar. 7), at 7:30 AM.

The opening credit, the RKO radio mast, looked horribly blurry, like a 4:3 movie had been cropped and blown up to fit a 16:9 format. But then the credit said the movie was in something called "Superscope", which I'm assuming was an attempt by a studio that was in financial difficulty to come up with its own widescreen format. Maybe the original print looked good, but whatever TCM showed looked terrible. Worse, that was the least of this movie's problems.

There's some bad stock footage that looks like it might have predated widescreen, with narration going on glowingly about Kentucky and its contribution to the sport of horse racing. We then see Agnes Tilbee (Charlotte Greenwood, now in full Marjorie Main mode), living in a trailer as she and her granddaughter Clarabel (Margaret O'Brien, all grown up but no less obnoxious than she was as a child actress), travel from one horse farm to another, spending the winters working for Chad Chadburn (John Lupton) and living on his horse farm. Agnes is at the age where she should probably retire, but money is an issue. She's got a pregnant horse, however, and that might finally yield a good race horse. Except that the mare gives birth to... a filly.

Stupid Clarabel names the filly Glory, and wants to keep the horse, even though Grandma needs money. This forces Agnes to sell the other horses to make ends meet, but still, the bills just keep on coming. Clarabel and the family friend Ned (Walter Brennan, essaying the same obnoxious shtick that somehow won him three Oscars) train Glory, and she gets the idea that Glory could be turned into a race horse and even enter the Kentucky Derby, at least if they can get the money to enter the filly into the qualifying races.

The one thing that could possibly save Clarabel and Agnes is a part-time horse owner Hoppy Hollis (Byron Palmer), who also has a radio show. He needs a female singer, and Clarabel can actually sing. She gets a part on the radio broadcasts, and you'd think that perhaps she could earn enough money to help both herself and Grandma financially. But no, Clarabel is so stupid and selfish that she's willing to drive Grandma into the poorhouse. She also holds a candle for Chad, who has gotten engaged to a woman more of his social class who is a snotty little blankety-blank to poor Clarabel....

But of course, if you've sat through the first 70 minutes of Glory, you know where the last act is going. If your stomach can handle the sickening sweetness of the material, that is. Oh boy did I hate this one, because it's just so damn stupid and formulaic, while also being obnoxiously sappy. As I said at the beginning, the bad print was the least of the problems Glory had, and that's saying something.