Devil On Horseback

Devil on Horseback (1954)

Tagline: "A Winner All The Way"

Featured Racecourses: Ascot, Goodwood, Hurst Park

Starring: Googie Withers, John McCallum, Jeremy Spenser, Meredith Edwards

Director: Cyril Frankel
Producer: John Grierson
Writers: James Curtis, Neil Paterson, Montagu Slater, Geoffrey Orme

Release Date: March 1954
Runtime: 88 minutes

IMDB Synopsis: A young jockey is determined to win whatever the cost, but finds that there are more important things than success.

Where to Buy: eBay
Film Links: IMDB, Wikipedia

Personal Review


Moppy Parfitt (Jeremy Spenser), an over-confident sixteen year old, leaves his job as a pit pony handler in a Wigan colliery and heads down south to pursue his ambition of becoming a top flat jockey. He tries his luck at Charles Robert's (John McCallum) stables in Wexham which have just taken on a number of horses owned by Mrs Cadell (Googie Withers), including a highly strung but talented animal called Ascotello or "Scatty". Moppy soon proves that he is the only person in the yard able to handle Scatty and he earns himself a job looking after the horse. When stable jockey Darky (Sam Kydd) gets thrown of Scatty on the gallops, Mrs Cadell and stablehand Scarlett O'Hara (Liam Redmond), who can both see the talent in Moppy, persuade Charles to let him take his chance. It's not long before Moppy is asked to have his first racecourse outing aboard Scatty and despite some of the more senior jockeys trying to nobble Moppy, the determined young man wins the race.

Before long the winners start flowing for Moppy but he is soon in trouble with his trainer, owner and the stewards when he is too hard on fragile horse Menlo Knight and he gets suspended for the remainder of the season. The stable jockey Darky is then forced to ride "Scatty" in the following race and ends up in hospital after being thrown off and Moppy's world hits rock bottom when Menlo Knight is put down due to his injuries. Scarlett, who by now has been sacked by Charles from his drunken and disorderly behaviour, catches up with Moppy and makes him see the error of his ways and the young boy decides to turn over a new leaf. He returns to the stables and asks Charles for a second chance and has a plan to teach Darky, when he returns from hospital, how to handle and ride Scatty culminating in the two jockeys coming head to head in one final race.

Another 1950's racing movie with good acting and scripts that is let down by an average plot and generally poor racing scenes. Googie Withers and John McCallum were excellent as the owner and trainer and had good on-screen chemistry, not surprising as they had been married since 1948 right up until John's death in 2010 - they also both appeared together as lovers on the run in the 1952 film "Derby Day". Jeremy Spenser was good as the young Jockey Moppy Parfitt and he appeared in numerous films and television programs in the 1950s and early 1960s before disappearing altogether at the age of 30. I quite liked the role of Liam Redmond in this film, playing the drunken but worldly wise stablehand Scarlett which had echoes of Lazy Mangan (Cyril Cusack) in a later film "The March Hare" without being as good. Finally it was great to see Vic Wise playing rogue senior jockey Fred Cole in the racing sequences - he went onto star as jockey Eddie Diamond in my favourite Norman Wisdom film "Just My Luck".

The majority of action in the racing sequences were filmed at Hurst Park racecourse but for some strange reason the first two scenes open up with shots from Goodwood racecourse and the final race scene opens with a shot from Ascot racecourse. All three races were generally disappointing due to the common 1950's practice of showing jockeys on model horses with action taking place on a green screen behind as well as the usual racing continuity issues. During the finish In the first race for example, Moppy is on the inside rail being intimidated by Fred Cole and yet in the next scene he comes down the outside to win the race. Having said all that the film does feature plenty of action from the now defunct Hurst Park so that has to be a big positive and we also get to see inside shots of the weighing room and stewards room.

I had never even heard off this film until it was recommended by another enthusiast and I'm so glad that this has now been added to my collection, with the excellent acting and dialogue more than making up for the generally poor racing scenes. I would describe it as a cross between George Formby's "Come on George" without the comedy and "The Rainbow Jacket", released later the same year, without the colour and quality. (Rating 5/10)

Favourite Quotes
Mrs Cadell: "Moppy you look magnificent. You know I have a feeling this is going to be your great day, you and Scatty are going to be famous, that is if he'll behave himself."
Moppy Parfitt: "He'll be alright when I'm on his back."
Mrs Cadell: "And you're going to win for me aren't you?"
Moppy Parfitt: "I'll win for you Mrs Cadell, it's a cakewalk."


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