Glory (1956) User Reviews

Go Baby Go!

[movingpicturegal · 6/10 · 7 September 2007]

Bit of fluff about a teenage girl named Clarabel (child actress Margaret O'Brien in a grown-up role), living in a trailer on a Kentucky horse ranch, who falls in love - with the new little chestnut filly just born on the ranch, who she names "Glory". When Glory becomes a yearling, Clarabel's "Gram" (Charlotte Greenwood) puts the horse up for sale (she has warned Clarabel to "never fall in love with one horse") for they need the money badly - but sad, sad Clarabel is helped out by local millionaire youth Chad and a horse doctor who prevents the sale. Clarabel and Chad have tons in common since, after all, all he talks about is horses, apparently - one problem, it's rumored he is engaged to one Candy Trent, who is one rich stuck-up snob. Well, Glory is trained for racing and proves to be a fast runner, and Clarabel decides to enter her prized horse in the "Kentucky Derby", even though it's rare for a filly to have a chance to win against the colts.

This film is a decent B-movie with a racehorse theme, mildly entertaining, painlessly pleasant. It oddly switches gear about the middle of the way through into a semi-musical (with several rather mediocre songs thrown in). Clarabel plays guitar and sings to her horse, then suddenly she is heard in the stables by a good-looking radio celebrity and hired to sing on his show, a second little romance to follow for her (but you just know she'll always be loyal to horse-lovin' Chad). There is a bit of history of thoroughbreds related at the beginning of the film including a shot of real-life Triple Crown winning race horse Citation; the finale features real footage of a Kentucky Derby race. For fans of Margaret O'Brien, it is so nice to see her in one of her almost adult roles - she's a charmer, but unfortunately the weak script doesn't really give her much of a chance to shine here. A side story features favorite character actor Walter Brennan as her "Uncle Ned" who constantly bickers and yells back and forth with Clarabel's Gram (but it appears they secretly really like each other!). Cute, lightly entertaining film - nothing great though.

Almost, but not quite...

[artzau · 6/10 · 5 June 2004]

We were all pulling for Maggie O'Brien back then. She had been a child star in the early 40s and we all fell in love with her. So, when he was a teen ager and made this film at 17, we wanted her to make it. Alas, it wasn't in the cards. Even the great character actors Walter Brennan, Charlotte Greenwood and Sasha Kinsky couldn't add to a racehorse story that stirred about as much excitement as watching a dog scratch fleas. She played the guitar, looked cute and tried to be charming but that's a far as it went.

Her age mate, Jane Fonda, was waiting in the wings and would take off. Both Margret O'Brien and Jane Fonda were born the same year but Jane had the talent and Maggie couldn't market hers.

Such are the blessings of the muses. If this film rolls around sometime on the late show-- there's no video or DVD at this writing-- give it a look-see. Maggie was cute and talented. It's worth seeing.

Under-rated for its' time

[gamay9 · 7/10 · 15 January 2014]

Obviously, this a 'feel good' film, but that is typical of the 50's when everyone was good, honest and Ike was president.

Margaret O'Brien and Walter Brennan carry this film. I thought Margaret was just as good an actress as in her childhood roles. She is just as pretty as Natalie Wood and I have never figured out why she wasn't cast in more adult roles. Was she adverse to playing femme fa tales? Did she lack the figure of a Janet Leigh or Elizabeth Taylor (note: O'Brien had small breasts and large thighs, calves). Was she flat in acting roles that required an adult theme? Or, was she just sick of acting? The film is not of the quality of 'National Velvet' but pretty good family fare. Personally, I think Margaret O'Brien would have been a superstar had she been born twenty years later.

I thought Margaret was 13 in 'Little Women' made in 1948 and released in 1949, but, if she was 19 in 1956 she would have been 11 in 'Little Women.' Many lay critics have told me she was 13 in 'Little Women,' Janet Leigh was 17, Elizabeth Taylor was 16 and June Alyson was 34.

Margaret O'Brien was very attractive in 'Glory,' and I would rank her with Natalie Wood and Janet Leigh in looks and acting ability. Taylor? NOT! Someone, please tell me why Margaret O'Brien didn't have an adult career at the level of the others mentioned in my review

The Road to the Derby

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 January 2014]

In the last stages of RKO Studios the place came out with a nice horse racing film and I'm a sucker for those. A now grownup Margaret O'Brien stars as the girl who owns and trains a filly who runs and wins the Kentucky Derby.

Of course as in all of these films the road to the Kentucky Derby is not an easy one for O'Brien and her aunt Charlotte Greenwood, nor for the man who trains the winner Walter Brennan. Greenwood and Brennan have a love/hate relationship, he trained for her husband and over a misunderstanding about who was to enter a certain horse in the Kentucky Derby they've been battling for 30 years.

Two men come into O'Brien's life, fellow horse owner John Lupton, scion of one of the great racing families and band-leader Byron Palmer who wants O'Brien for a vocalist. I think she made the right decision his kind of big band music was definitely passé at that point. Now had she been a rock and roller, that would have been different.

At the time Glory was made only one filly, Regret in 1915 had ever won the Kentucky Derby. It's a sports legend at the time and lovers of horse racing were familiar with Regret. Since then two other fillies have won the Derby.

Still Glory is a fine racing film even if real life has made the plot a bit obsolete.

Glory (1956)

[ROC-7 · 1/10 · 16 January 2005]

A perfectly dreadful film that was poorly directed especially in the comedy sequences where in the Director Butler's idea of comedy is to have his actors gesture wildly and contort themselves making the audience more nauseous than merry. Margaret O'Brien was a complete horror..I suppose some found her cute when she was small,I always found her contrived and cold..lite years away from Shirley Temple! Here she proves herself to be the consummate amateur constantly looking at the camera with the glazed look of an anvil hitting her over the head! The songs that she is armed with are certainly musical bombs altho I will admit that she has a passable voice.. I would recommend this film for friends to assist you in laughing at it's unintentional humor and throw old shoes at the screen..Pity that this was Charolette Greenwood's last performance,but not even this great lady can save this train wreck with hooves.

Sorry, but it's dreadful

[mlcamilli · 3/10 · 15 January 2014]

I really wanted to like this movie, after all it's adorable Margaret O'Brien! Seems to me it's trying to make her into some kind of Elizabeth Taylor - her clothes and haircut remind me of Liz, and then there's horses (National Velvet anyone?). The script, the story, terrible. Full of clichés: family always in danger of losing farm/horse, man engaged to snobby rich girl who is wrong for him, crotchety old lady full of zingers, underdog rising to victory. All of which would be OK if the script or acting were better.

Margaret, I'm really sorry to say it, is terrible - syrupy, and I just don't believe anything about her character - all I see is Margaret saying her lines. Her sweet childhood mannerisms just don't translate to a grown up girl - the big smile, doe eyes and strange jerky way she turns her head. Seems to me that's not her real voice singing. I'm sure it must be dubbed in. And when I learned to ride horses, I was taught you always get on and off a horse on its left side, that horses are trained this way. Maybe it's different in racing? But in an early scene, Clarabel (Margaret), who is supposed to live and breathe horses, gets off a horse on the wrong side. Seems to me if she knew so much about raising horses, she would never do that.

If this is the Kentucky Derby, and I think they're all supposed to be in Kentucky, how come hardly anyone except Candy has a southern accent? Maybe I would like this better if I was interested in horse racing, but I really know nothing about it. I LOVE old movies, but this one is just too hard to watch. And if one of the characters says "Glory" one more time, I think I will scream.

The movie didn't draw me in - I really had to make myself finish watching it. You know almost from the start that the horse will win, that Clarabel will get Chad, no one will lose their farm or property, and Grandma and Uncle Ned will make up. There's not much in between that makes you want to watch up to what you know is going to happen in the end.

Maybe worth seeing if you're interested in what happened to Margaret O'Brien when she grew up, or in fifties fashions.

For racing fans only

[ZevII · 3/10 · 25 July 2005]

I'm a horse racing fan, so I enjoyed seeing the color footage of the Churchill Downs and Keeneland racetracks from the 1950s. The footage they used for Glory's Kentucky Derby was from the 1955 Derby, when Swaps and Bill Shoemaker beat Nashua and Eddie Arcaro in one of the all-time great matchups.

Aside from the peak at history, the story is so hokey that it makes "Leave It To Beaver" seem like a gripping reality series. It's one of those really campy movies where you might want to invite some friends over, pump 'em full of beer, and have fun laughing at how bad the plot, dialog and acting are.

Call it "Plan Nine From Churchill Downs."

Margaret O'Brien rules

[tday-1 · 10/10 · 24 February 2005]

Neat little film of coming of age Margaret O'Brien owning and training racehorse. The production values are nice,there's a nice bunch of character actors. Maggie looks sweet in fifties-era dresses. It's not Medea but it's a fun enough racetrack drama with some music put in. A commenter mentioned Maggie's singing, she was dubbed by the Champagne Lady herself,Norma Zimmer. Charlotte Greenwood and Walter Brennan are great as always. For some reason RKO in the fifties had the nicest color photography and it's on display here. Definitely an enjoyable movie to watch. The only complaint some viewers might have is that this film seems more like a forties film rather than a fifties. Hollywood was still trying to recycle old formulas in its attempt to keep its' head above water. Unfortunately,this film didn't lead to a grown-up career for Margaret o'Brien as it should have.

Pretty terrible

[HotToastyRag · 1/10 · 1 April 2019]

I sat through Glory was because Hot Toasty Rag was honoring Margaret O'Brien as Star of the Week, and this was the only movie I could get my hands on to see her acting talents as a young woman. The one nice thing I'll say about this movie is that there's nothing wrong with Margaret, and I would have loved to see more of her adult acting. Now for the not-too-nice stuff:

Nineteen-year-old Margaret plays a tomboy who lives and breathes horses. Her grandmother, Charlotte Greenwood, does nothing besides reprise her role as Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! and engage in irritating screaming contests with Walter Brennan. I can only imagine how tired Walter was of playing the grumpy, old hick, so why didn't he turn this movie down? Since Charlotte Greenwood had already been in Oklahoma!, why didn't she turn this movie down? If everyone involved protested and refused to make this movie, there would be no movie to criticize, and no one's feelings would be hurt from reading such terrible criticism. As it stands, people did show up to work, Glory did get made, and everyone who's ever seen it has panned it.

Underdog wins again!!

[Xracersam · 8/10 · 21 April 2006]

Just a fun film-Especially for people who love the Horse Racing Game and it's history. A lot of good one liners and humor from Walter badgering with the other old timer (lady). I would love to own this movie. A lot of history will be lost if this film is not made available to the general public. Where is The Classic Movie Channel when you need them? A lot was accomplished in this tight budget movie. The film footage of the actual Kentucky Derby for the year is enough in itself to justify releasing it on video. People love these types of movies, Look at Dreamer, and of course the very well Done Seabiscuit. What a nice addition it would be for the JOckey Club or other Race related industry.

"Cute" but that is about it.

[cemab4y · 9/10 · 30 May 2010]

I was born in Louisville, on Derby Day, in the year of the Horse. I grew up in horse farm country (Lexington), and I used to work in the horse race business (as a Video Engineer).

I enjoy this film, immensely, because there are not many great horse race films (Seabiscuit, was a near-classic). I really enjoy the location shots, the horse barn, the race tracks, the close-ups of the magnificent horses.

The acting is not great, despite some excellent character actors. The verisimilitude of horse racing, is however, spot-on. The writers obviously did their homework. Seeing the color photography of Keeneland, and Churchill Downs, in the 1950's is always a treat.

There have only been three (3) fillies, to win the Kentucky Derby: Regret, Genuine Risk, and Winning Colors. So, the title horse has to be a filly! The horse race crowd, loves an underdog, look at the enthusiasm for Mine That Bird, who was a 50-1 shot in the 2009 Derby.

Long live the races!!