THAT'S MY MAN *

This late Frank Borzage movie is almost impossible to categorize. It begins as a kind of 'meet-cute-romantic-comedy' before turning into something more serious but there's a difference, the difference here being a horse. Yes, the man in the title of "That's My Man" is a racehorse we first meet in a taxi-cab one wet Christmas week in LA. His owner is Don Ameche who is so good he makes the mostly cringe-worthy dialogue in these opening scenes sound feasible or is it Borzage, one of the cinema's great romantic directors, who turns potential slop into visual poetry? Regardless, it works. Indeed, these opening scenes are really quite splendid but then it all goes very conventionally downhill. The material is just too off-the-wall and it takes a considerable suspension of disbelief to accept a lot of what is happening. Individual shots and moments do stand out but this is certainly not one of Borzage's better films but then again, no Borzage film is completely negligible and fans of this great director will want to see this. Others may just find it too lachrymose by far.