The Return of October [A Date with Destiny] ** (1948, Glenn Ford, Terry Moore, Dame May Whitty, James Gleason) – Classic Movie Review 13,137

Joseph H Lewis’s pleasant if peculiar 1948 Columbia Pictures American Technicolor horse-racing comedy drama film The Return of October [A Date with Destiny] stars Glenn Ford, Terry Moore, Dame May Whitty, and James Gleason.

October is a horse that pretty young teenage girl Terry (Terry Moore) believes to be her dead horse trainer uncle (James Gleason)’s reincarnation – he swore that he would come back to win the Kentucky Derby! Uncle Willy had dreamt of winning the Derby and bet all on his horse Sunset, but collapsed and died after it lost.

Terry lives with her wealthy, dying Aunt Martha Grant (Dame May Whitty). Psychology professor Bentley ‘Bass’ Bassett Jr (Glenn Ford) writes a book about Terry, and her nasty greedy relatives see this as a way to prove that she is not mentally fit to claim her inheritance from Aunt Martha, using it against her in a sanity hearing.

The stars look somewhat bemused as the script by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama (based on a story by Karen DeWolf and Connie Lee) gets more bizarre. But the film has a degree of charm and so do many of the actors, while William E Snyder’s bright Technicolor cinematography livens and cheers things up.

October is played by the horse actor Highland Dale, known for Black Stallion (1948), Black Beauty (1946), TV the TV series Fury (1955–1960) and The High Chaparral (1967). He was born on March 4, 1943 in Missouri and died in 1973 in California.

The cast are Glenn Ford as Professor Bentley Bassett Jr, Albert Sharpe as Vince the tout, Terry Moore as Terry Ramsey, James Gleason as Uncle Willie, Dame May Whitty as Aunt Martha, Samuel S Hinds as Judge, Lloyd Corrigan as Attorney Dutton, Henry O’Neill as Hotchkiss, Ray Walker as Joe, Frederic Tozere as Mitchell, Nana Bryant as Cousin Therese, Roland Winters as Colonel Wood, Stephen Dunne as Professor Stewart, Gus Schilling as Benny, Murray Alper as Little Max, Horace MacMahon as Big Louie, Victoria Horne as Margaret Grant and Russell Hicks as Taylor.

The Return of October is directed by Joseph H Lewis, runs 89 minutes, is made and released by Columbia Picture, is written by Melvin Frank Norman and Panama, based on a story by Karen DeWolf and Connie Lee, is produced by Rudolph Maté. is shot by William E Snyder, and is scored by George Duning, with Art Direction by Stephen Goosson Rudolph Sternad.

Release dates: October 26, 1948 (New York City) December 21, 1948 (US).

It was re-titled A Date with Destiny in the UK. The Return of October isn’t much of a title but then A Date with Destiny isn’t either.

Dame May Whitty (1865-1948)

It is the last released film of Dame May Whitty, though she died of cancer aged 82 shortly after filming The Sign of the Ram (1948).

She was nominated for two best supporting actress Oscars as the invalid Mrs Bramson in Night Must Fall (1937) and Lady Beldon in Mrs Miniver (1942),  She is for ever Miss Froy in Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938).

She was the first actress to become a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE), invested in the 1918 King’s New Year Honours List for services to hospital work in World War One.

Terry Moore

Terry Moore (born Helen Luella Koford; January 7, 1929) was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Come Back, Little Sheba (1952).

Moore was previously credited as Helen Koford or Jan Ford, but after playing a character called Terry Ramsey here Terry became her stage name, Terry Moore.

Moore dated Glenn Ford in the early 1970s.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,137

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com