Like a lot of movies, Saratoga does little more than pander to something popular in its day. In this case, degenerate gambling on horse racing.
Oh, sure, there is some sort of plot involved but the way it meanders around, kills time, and goes nowhere, I'm not sure it matters. It's just an excuse to show a big day at the races.
But it already wasn't a very good movie by the time the third act rolled around and the most interesting person in the movie was dead. Not dead as in character dead. But dead as in real-life dead. Harlow's wackjob mom saw to that.
But worse than that, missing Harlow meant having to fill with the frenetic Frank Morgan character and the entirely obnoxious Lionel Barrymore character. I would probably hate that ''miserable old man" shtick in any event, but if you're old enough to remember Dana Carvey satirizing it on Saturday Night Live, where he made it genuinely funny, you can't help but see the original as an "I pooped my pants" old man character and you want him to stroke out as soon as he hits the screen. No matter how many movies Barrymore tried it in.
Ultimately nothing more than a curiosity piece.
Oh, sure, there is some sort of plot involved but the way it meanders around, kills time, and goes nowhere, I'm not sure it matters. It's just an excuse to show a big day at the races.
But it already wasn't a very good movie by the time the third act rolled around and the most interesting person in the movie was dead. Not dead as in character dead. But dead as in real-life dead. Harlow's wackjob mom saw to that.
But worse than that, missing Harlow meant having to fill with the frenetic Frank Morgan character and the entirely obnoxious Lionel Barrymore character. I would probably hate that ''miserable old man" shtick in any event, but if you're old enough to remember Dana Carvey satirizing it on Saturday Night Live, where he made it genuinely funny, you can't help but see the original as an "I pooped my pants" old man character and you want him to stroke out as soon as he hits the screen. No matter how many movies Barrymore tried it in.
Ultimately nothing more than a curiosity piece.