The Story of Seabiscuit (1949) User Reviews (20)

"Sure, he's small in the body, but big in the heart."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 11 February 2017]

The real Seabiscuit retired in 1940 and died in 1947. Just like heavyweight boxer Jimmy Braddock, the legendary race horse became an unlikely champion and symbol of hope for many Americans during the Great Depression. As a family movie, this is a passable film with endearing characters, though I didn't get a sense of Seabiscuit's legendary status as a thoroughbred race horse in the telling. In the picture he's sometimes overshadowed by the on again/off again romance between Margaret O'Hara (Shirley Temple) and Ted Knowles (Lon McCallister). Without a doubt, the presence of Barry Fitzgerald in the story as trainer Shawn O'Hara was the spark this film needed to make it a worthwhile story, even if a fictional one.

I was somewhat taken aback when the Technicolor format went black and white around the fifty four minute mark, but quickly determined the race horse footage must have been the real deal from the era. With a little research I learned that the one-on-one match up between Seabiscuit and War Admiral was the actual race between the two horses, as was the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap, won by the titled horse following his amazing comeback from a leg injury.

For racing fans who also admire Shirley Temple, this is your chance to see her in her next to last film. The only other movie I've watched where she's an adult was the prior year's cavalry Western "Fort Apache" where she seemed out of her element. Having seen both pictures now, it's somewhat apparent she didn't transition that well into adult roles, which is OK, as she made her mark as a cute-as-a-button youngster in a slew of pictures throughout the Thirties. That's really the only way I can think of her.

Seabiscuit by a mile

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 November 2011]

Although the fine version from 2003 about Seabiscuit that Jeff Bridges and Tobey Maguire brought to the screen is far more factual, this B film that stars Barry Fitzgerald and Shirley Temple should please fans of the sport of kings. Considering what the costs are to maintain horse racing as a sport only royalty or those considered royal in their societies can afford to participate other than at the $2.00 parimutuel window at the track.

For reasons not quite clear Barry Fitzgerald together with niece Shirley Temple are brought over from Ireland because stable owner William Forrest has heard of Fitzgerald's legendary ability to judge thoroughbred horseflesh. Of course that brings him into contact with Donald MacBride who is already Forrest's trainer and they disagree over a yearling that Fitzgerald sees promise in and MacBride doesn't. Barry leaves and goes to work for Pierre Watkin and Rosemary DeCamp and later on they acquire the horse now named Seabiscuit.

A young jockey played by Lon McCallister, the part Tobey Maguire played in 2003 is interested in Shirley Temple and the fictional romance doesn't interfere with Seabiscuit's legendary exploits on the track. Newsreel footage of the famous match race with Triple Crown winner War Admiral is shown in its entirety with Clem McCarthy's famous call of the race. Including McCarthy who was one of the great sports announcers of all time really captures the flavor of the period. McCarthy's voice is also the one covering the famous second and very short Joe Louis/Max Schmeling fight. Horse racing was his first love however and McCarthy covered and called every major race in a 20 year period.

It's not as good as the newer film, but The Story Of Seabiscuit while its characters are superficial does capture the racing scene of the time.

Read the book, see the movie.

[alydar21 · 6/10 · 23 July 2001]

Had to see the movie after reading the wonderful bestseller about Seabiscuit. Supposedly uses the real footage of the match race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit. Acting aside, the historic race alone is worth viewing the movie.

Not just a film about a horse

[3collegegreen · 24 November 2003]

First I read the book by Laura Hillenbrand, then I saw the 2003 film in a theater, and finally I saw this wonderful warm film on DVD titled The Story of Seabiscuit. Being from Ireland, I certainly didn't mind the Barry Fitzzgerald and Shirley Temple intrusion, which does take away from the historical value of the film, but also adds a love story which actually holds the film together.

In the latest version, The legendary Seabiscuit does not appear until all the leading characters are introduced. In this film, all the background information comes in the form of dialogue, which flows smoothly from the brogue of Fitzgeralds charming Irish horse trainer, Sean O'Hara. Barry has a way of drawing you into a film, and sets up Shirley Temple's character, his niece, and also holds together the love story, between her and a jockey, played by Lon McCallister.

Although some of the real names were changed, Seabiscuit's racing history remained true, and they used the actual black and white footage of the match race with War Admiral, which the 2003 film did not.

Considering that this film was made 54 years ago, It holds up very well, with the vibrant color only adding to the film's beauty. Trying to compare these two films, is like comparing apples and oranges. This one is a Hollywood film and the 2003 version is closer to a documentary. Both are well worth seeing, but not comparing.

A day at the races

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 12 June 2005]

"The Story of Seabiscuit", which was shown recently on TCM, is a film that is pleasant to sit through, but inferior to the much better "Seabiscuit" that came out on 2003, based on the magnificent book by Laura Hillenbrand and directed by Gary Ross. This 1949 movie was perhaps a vehicle for an adult Shirley Temple. As directed by David Butler, the film has some good moments.

The best thing in the movie is the irresistible Barry Fitzgerald. As Shawn O'Hara, he comes to America to work with horses at the Milford Farms. He arrives with his niece, Margaret. Shawn knows a lot about horses and he spots Seabiscuit right away. His love for the horse puts him at odds with George, the head trainer. Since Seabiscuit doesn't show anything at the beginning and Shawn's health seems to deteriorate, Shawn and Margaret decide to go on to California to work with the Howards, a couple that appreciate Shawn's advice.

Among the recommendations Shawn tells the Howards, is to buy Seabiscuit from Mr. Milford for the sum of six thousand dollars. After Shawn resumes training the horse, and with the help of Ted Knowles, the jockey, Seabiscuit begins to respond and win. Seabiscuit was a legend in the sport.

The story is conventional, but totally watchable by the presence of Barry Fitzgerald. He steals every scene in which he appears. Shirley Temple is not believable with her Irish accent, but she is a sweet figure in the story. Lon McCallister, playing Ted, is fine. Rosemarie DeCamp is an elegant figure who doesn't get much to do.

The film doesn't attempt to be anything but a semi documentary about Seabiscuit and its trainer and the relationship between them. Horse race fans will have a good time with the film thanks to Mr. Fitzgerald's contribution.

Everyone should see once

[racliff · 5/10 · 26 January 2006]

Horse racing was part of my life since birth, albeit not so much any more. So these are the kinds of movies I always like. Most important for this movie is, that Barry Fitzgerald always makes me smile, and Shirley Temple is terrific memory for almost everyone.

These are the reasons that everyone should be happy to enjoy this movie at least once. However I don't know if I would go out of my way to see this again. It is unfortunate that this movie, like so many of previous decades, was not considerate of the actual history of the event, but chose to create a plot loosely based on a true event. The 2003 version "Seabiscuit" is truly wonderful and is a part of my home collection. This is the primary reason I gave it a vote of 5.

The imagery is fun and I like the way the movie edits play together, but it is not likely to be in the top ten for many people. Even so I recommend this for all who enjoy Fitzgerald or Temple, and of course lovers of all horse stories.

O dear gawd

[qatmom · 2/10 · 19 December 2009]

Once upon a time in America, there was a very great Thoroughbred racehorse named Seabiscuit. He ran some remarkable races and is justly recalled as a truly great runner.

A few years after Seabiscuit left the track, this incredibly terrible movie was made about him. It has little to do with the life and times of the real Seabiscuit, whose real story is more compelling than this dreadful, saccharine fiction.

In the days when this movie was made, a lot of people in Hollywood were involved in racing, so it is hard to understand how NONE of them got racing right on the screen. All of the racing movies from this period are horrible, sentimental, inaccurate, and just plain bizarre. No one has to make up stories to make racing compelling, but Hollywood almost always does make up piles of syrupy manure to go into these films; the recent Seabiscuit is an exception, and got most everything ***right***.

The Ruffian movie was a reeker (no, Ruffian was not a short-legged gelding...)and I dread the upcoming Secretariat movie will stink as well.

Avoid this movie! It offends racing fans! It offends black Americans! It offends Chinese Americans! You have been warned! I gave the movie 2 stars because of the good condition of the newsreel footage of the real horse in action.

very good

[jewelch · 8/10 · 10 November 2021]

Loved this movie. Different depiction of Seabiscuit than the more modern movie. Definitely dated in it's outlook, but Barry Fitzgerald is great, Shirley Temple is Awesome also. The big draw is that real film footage of Seabiscuit's great races is used in the movie, and the horses that play him in the close-ups and training are Seabiscuit's close relatives - a son and a nephew, I believe. Color and black and white film interspersed adds to the film rather than detract. Really enjoyed this. .Yes I will recommend it. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 11/10/2021.

Shirley Temple at the Races

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 24 April 2013]

Irish-accented Shirley Temple (as Margret O'Hara) arrives in the small, bluegrass town of Paris, Kentucky with her horse training uncle Barry Fitzgerald (as Shawn O'Hara). He will nurture the famous racehorse "Seabiscuit" while Ms. Temple studies nursing. Soon, they relocate to a ranch near Southern California's famed Santa Anita racetrack. Because Temple's brother "Danny" died tragically in a horse race, Temple is reluctant to become involved with jockey Lon McCallister (as Ted Knowles), although they are mutually attracted...

This film somehow manages to be unappealing despite having several advantages. It's photographed in Technicolor and effectively incorporates some footage of the real "Seabiscuit". When the available footage is in black-and-white, so goes the movie; it's nicely done. And Shirley is lovely...

Although she has been appearing as a "grown-up" for years, Temple is still a distracting actress. Moreover, in this one, she plays her character with an Irish brogue. The script could have easily been re-written to begin with Mr. Fitzgerald arriving to join Temple in the US, following the death of a parent (instead of her brother), so perhaps Temple wanted to essay the accent. The story is more about her romance than the horse, and Mr. McCallister is an asset as Temple's leading man. The African and Asian stereotypes are grotesque.

***** The Story of Seabiscuit (11/11/49) David Butler ~ Shirley Temple, Barry Fitzgerald, Lon McCallister, Rosemary DeCamp

Plodding horse story is slow getting to the finish...

[Doylenf · 13 April 2001]

A grown-up Shirley Temple is the only reason for interest in this weak horse story that is certainly not in the league with films like 'National Velvet' or 'My Friend Flicka'. Only interesting aspect is provided by Shirley Temple in one of her last films as a an adult actress, a nurse with bitter feelings about racing due to the death of a brother in the sport. She's pleasant enough, nicely photographed in technicolor and sporting an Irish brogue. Barry Fitzgerald provides a few amusing moments and Lon McCallister is on hand as a jockey who falls for Shirley--but tedium sets in early on and it never quite manages to pick up any steam for what is supposed to be a rousing finish. I caught this one on Turner Classic Movies when they had a tribute to Shirley's birthday and was impressed by her charm and assurance in a basically sub-standard role. Too bad the script didn't provide her and the others with more challenging material. It's a passable film and according to Shirley, did well enough at the box-office at time of release--probably due to her personal popularity.

when the legend is better than the truth, print the legend

[david_weinstock · 1/10 · 10 June 2007]

when the truth is so much more interesting, this movie was pretty much a waste of time. the real characters were also more interesting than these two dimensional characters. the only redeeming quality was the newsreel footage of some of the actual races. fortunately, the recent Laura Hillebrand book and the recent movie corrected some of the nonsense. in real life, the great Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, Charles Howard, Tom Smith, and even Red Pollard were all much more interesting characters than those in this stinker. perhaps there were problems getting the rights to use the real names of real people who were alive at the time of filming. there is no doubt that Shirley Temple was very cute when they made this abomination, and probably was cuter than Red Pollard's own wife, the nurse. There was also no need to use such lame stereotypical characters for the non-white cast members. for a degenerate race track gambler like myself, the racing footage was worth enduring the rest of it.

Shirley Temple was a 21 year old knockout.

[ProgShred · 3/10 · 29 January 2006]

I was always in awe at Shirley Temple's amazing talent as a child and always wondered what kind of adult actor she would be, then TCM showed this movie and I got the chance to see for myself.

Her acting here is kinda hot and cold. There are some scenes where she's brilliant, while in other scenes she just seems to read the lines without much feeling. Still, she was good enough to make me want to see more. It's a shame she didn't do much film work after this one. I think she would've been a major sex symbol.

The rest of the movie was kinda boring and predictable. When they showed the original racing footage, they did the whole racetrack scene in B&W. I thought it was funny how they went from the hospital room in color, to looking at a racing form, then to everyone at the race track in B&W. I thought it was funny because I'm sure they were trying to make it almost unnoticeable by using the racing form as a go between. I would have left the footage out of the movie and done the scene in color.

There were two things about the love story that I thought were interesting. I thought that Ted fell in love with Margaret too quick, then after Margaret refused to let Ted kiss her, she kisses him with a bunch of pecks all over his face, followed by one planted on the lips.

Nothing Tops The Original

[deanofrpps · 9/10 · 3 August 2003]

It's hard to top the original. the original Seabiscuit was a favorite on the big show, the afternoon movie after school and homework and of course imparted that never-say-die values. its copy the 2003 version tries to use classical story telling techniques but wanders into a short and dry history of the depression.

comparing the two versions, they both present tough people who overcome obstacles in their path but both miss the tenacity of Mrs Howard who was the prime motivator of the entire scheme.

History on the outside, phoney romance up the inside

[jaster-7 · 4/10 · 1 September 2014]

I liked the casting, and the costumes of this movie and I love the story of Seabiscuit. Tomorrow I am picking up the book that the 2003 film was based on, which is one of my all time favourite films. A drag in this 1949 version is the embarrassing minority stereotyping and treatment. The pace is also tedious - at one point you are watching an entire race that Seabiscuit is not even running in. The authentic archival footage was great. I liked seeing Shirley Temple in her later years as an actress - still has those adorable dimples and she's holding her own even taking on a thick Irish accent. But the story gets tedious over this injected love story between what I assume are the fictional characters of Margaret O'Hara and Ted Knowles. It spends waaay too much time on that phoney back and forth. For the most part, the movie seemed to follow the facts in all but one odd way - these fictional characters and the forced conflict between Shirley's character and this jockey Ted Knowles, who it finally dawned on me was in place of the real major player in the story of Seabiscuit, John "Red" Pollard. I'm not sure why they took this liberty with the facts and eliminated Red Pollard from being mentioned in the film, but used his story. As a viewer I didn't care about Margaret and Ted too much, and certainly didn't buy into the romantic tension of would they or wouldn't they get together. And I didn't care about the tragedy in Margaret's life that made her 'skittish' on marrying a jockey. Every time they were doing a scene, I was wondering what Seabiscuit was doing.

All these years later, we have a new movie about Sea Biscuit. Can't wait!..w

[bettiem · 30 May 2003]

For its time, it was a nice movie. Shirley Temple was in adulthood even more lovely than as a child. Rosemary DeCamp can't lose, what a great actress.! One can't forget Barry FitGerald. Yes, the race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit used real footage. AND now, all these years later, 2003, we have the thrill of a new movie coming out in July. This time, author Laura Hillenbrand's great book will be produced with her supervision of the film. If the film is as good as the book which is truly a work of great art and literature, far more than a horse book, namely a character study of the horse and the four men who made Seabiscuit a great horse, we will complete the circle and the legend of Seabiscuit. Can't wait.!

not very good

[midnighter89 · 2/10 · 5 November 2008]

Although it is a nice, warm, charming story/plot it is a let down considering. The fact that some of the main characters in this version are completely fictional (the O'Haras) bothered me throughout the entire movie.

I did love that it had some actual B&W footage of some of Seabiscuit's races. And being a sucker for almost any animal movie (especially horses) I utterly enjoyed all the scenery and all the shots of the horses. The only reason I would watch this again is for that, not for the plot or the actors. But I'm fairly sure that this one is going to collect dust on my DVD shelf.

If you are going to watch a movie about Seabiscuit, I advise to see the amazing 2003 version and skip this one.

Vanilla version of a lovely story

[georgegolembiewski · 6 May 2003]

I loved watching this period piece about the great Seabiscuit. The

opening scene at the railroad station was shockingly racist. This clumsy attempt at humor was offensive to me as an American, but I must remember this was 1949. After this the movie shows some beautiful scenes of Kentucky horse country. The actor Lon MCallister seems awfully big for a jockey, but is a perfect love interest for young Shirley Temple who does a nice job in the role. The scene stealer is of course the inimitable Barry Fitzgerald who gives a predictably colorful performance as the oh so wise horse trainer. All in all a sanitized version of the real Seabiscuit story.

Good Movie, Bad Acting!

[jovanni4 · 11 January 2004]

I happened to catch this movie by accident while clicking through the cable channel and the story of sea biscuit caught my eye!

The movie's cinematography was excellent and the back drops were pure eye candy for the movie buffs.

It seemed as though Barry Fitzgerald "stole" EACH and EVERY scene he was in and made all the other actors go begging for drama coaching with the exception of Rosemary Decamp who seems to always know where the camera was and especially when it was trained on her.

The acting of Shirley Temple was horrendous and unprofessional. It was if she either did not believe in the character she was portraying or just wanted to be somewhere else. (ala, gregory peck in duel of the sun).

I believe the only thing that saved each and every scene of hers from the cutting floor was the fact that she does have (a very pretty face)and since she was uh... 'Little Shirley Temple' how could she possibly be bad?

Her acting and the general camp acting of the other players seem to muddle the storyline. The Great cinematography and the scene-stealing mastery of fitzgerald is the only reason I kept the recording.

And last but not least the great historical footage of the horse (seabiscuit)who also helped salvage some of the last 2 reels.

Best of all were the horse(s) and Rosemary deCamp.

[jim_brown-green · 23 April 2003]

I remember this movie from my childhood and recently saw it on cable. What I don't understand is why do I remember this very forgettable film. It's really a loser. The horse(s) who played Seabiscuit get the highest acting credits from me. And Rosemary is always deCamp!

Seabiscuit, race horse for the 1930s.

[TxMike · 21 November 2023]

Shirley Temple was just 21 during filming in 1946 and with another movie that year marked the end of her film career. Here she plays a fictional character, Margaret O'Hara. She and her uncle traveled from Ireland to Kentucky, he to assist in horse training and she to study to become a nurse. Seems that it was rumored her uncle had a special skill and maybe spoke to Leprechauns to gain insight into how a horse will perform.

The characters are fictional, as are many of the story lines associated with them in this movie. What is factual is the actual story of Seabiscuit, a somewhat smaller racehorse, that had more and more racing success as he matured. When he was a 5-yr-old he was almost unbeatable.

The movie is in color but in a couple of scenes where actual archive racing film is used, the movie scenes are filmed in B&W to appear consistent with the old footage.

I never actually watched any movies with Sirley Temple as a child star so I can't compare, but here she does just fine. The movie is well-made and entertaining.

At home on DVD from my public library.