Gene Smith Movies

Acknowledged as one of the greatest thoroughbred racehorses of the 1930s, Seabiscuit is the archetypal example of the extreme long shot who made good. Too squat, knobby-kneed, disheveled, and off-colored, the horse would have been written off as a total loss by anyone except the triumvirate of dedicated men who transformed this unpromising property into a winner: wealthy, stubborn owner Charles Howard, indefatigable trainer Tom Smith, and washed-up jockey Red Pollard, to whom Seabiscut represented the proverbial "last clear chance." So famous and popular that even President Franklin D. Roosevelt worked the horse's name into his public appearances, Seabiscuit also underlined the schism between the freewheeling, take-a-risk West Coast racing establishment and the snobbish, conservative East Coasters. Among the interviewees in this one-hour TV documentary is author Laura Hillenbrand, whose best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend sparked a widespread revival of interest in the champion horse. Seabiscuit was originally a presentation of the PBS anthology American Experience. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi