Black Gold *** (1947, Anthony Quinn, Katherine DeMille) – Classic Movie Review 11,824

Director Phil Karlson’s 1947 American Cinecolor drama film Black Gold stars Anthony Quinn and Katherine DeMille, and is based on a story by Caryl Coleman. It was then Monogram Pictures’ most expensive film, their first shot in colour, and their first film released as Allied Artists, as well as Quinn’s first leading role.

Brave Indian Charley Eagle (Mexican actor Quinn) and his wife Sarah Eagle (DeMille) find and adopt a Chinese orphan called Davey (Ducky Louie) and Quinn trains him to be a jockey and ride his faithful horse, the mare Black Hope, whom he loses in a race but grabs back again.

The gently told sentimental yarn is liberal minded and good hearted, but without any edge, though the performances and good spirit help to make it more than acceptable thoughtful entertainment.

The title? Quinn finds oil on his land and the mare has a colt they call Black Gold.

It is loosely based on the true story of the horse Black Gold that won the 1924 Kentucky Derby.

Karlson said he made four other movies while making Black Gold, which took a year to make because ‘I wanted the seasons. I went to Churchill Downs for the Derby and had to do the races here, and I had to get some desert scenes. A lot of time lapses in the picture.’

Karlson recalled: ‘I made such a strong statement that the Indian nations all picked it up. To look at something and see the truth, for a change, was something that was unusual in those days.’

Quinn and DeMille, adopted daughter of Cecil B DeMille, were then married but this is the only occasion they appeared together on screen before their divorce in 1965.

The cast are Anthony Quinn as Charley Eagle, Katherine DeMille as Sarah Eagle, Ducky Louie as Davey, Raymond Hatton as Buckey, Kane Richmond as Stanley Lowell, Thurston Hall as Colonel Caldwell, Moroni Olsen as Dan Toland, Jonathan Hale as Senator Watkins, Elyse Knox as Ruth Frazer, and Darryl Hickman as Schoolboy.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,824

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