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Devil on Horseback
Devil on Horseback is a 1954 British sports drama film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Googie Withers, John McCallum and Jeremy Spenser.[1] The screenplay was by Scottish writer Neil Paterson. PlotFourteen-year-old Moppy Parfit pursues his ambition to be a jockey. As his career progresses his arrogance leads him into trouble but he learns to fight his faults. Cast
ProductionThe film was made at Beaconsfield Studios with sets designed by Michael Stringer. ReceptionThe Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "For over half its length Devil on Horseback appears as a routine racing film, with no more than the excitements inevitable in the theme. Then, after a half-fantastic scene between the drunken Irishman and the boy, the film concentrates on the breaking-in of Moppy, which it does very well, capturing with remarkable success the sharpness of misery which is only possible at fourteen. The superiority of the latter part of the film is due largely to Jeremy Spenser's greater aptitude for more emotional acting; the earlier scenes are weakened by his inability to make the boy both cocksure and sympathetic. As the emotional hub of the film, the scene between Moppy and O'Hara under the street lamp might have been a moment of high fantasy, had it not been allowed to run on after the emotional impact had been achieved. The faking of the racing scenes is at times uncomfortably apparent; but the almost documentary re-creation of the atmosphere of the training stables and the morning runs on the heath is strikingly successful."[2] Kine Weekly wrote: "Wholesome, uninhibited racing melodrama, set in authentic and picturesque surroundings … The picture covers a lot of territory and carries quite enough weight, but, although it puffs a bit as it reaches the straight, it seldom relxes its grip on its audience and ends in grand style."[3] Leonard Maltin called it an "inconsequential racing yarn."[4] The Radio Times said, "it's strong on atmosphere and story. Sadly, the film suffers from lack of pace, disappointing racing sequences and an overdose of sentimentality".[5] TV Guide called it a "good racetrack drama, with excellent performances all around."[6] In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Slow, atmospheric racing drama, well acted; below par-racing sequences."[7] In British Cinema of the 1950s Harper and Porter write that the film was "marred by extremely poor back projection in the racing sequences".[8] See alsoReferences
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