The Homestretch (1947)
Thundering THRILLS!
Genre : Drama
Runtime : 1H 39M
Director : H. Bruce Humberstone
Synopsis
A young couple's marriage is threatened by the husband's love of horses and the racetrack circuit.
A charming racketeer seduces the DA's stepdaughter for revenge, then falls in love.
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his lot, Harold invests his father's life savings in a greyhound who is almost blind and can't see the hare. When the dog loses a race and Harold has to pay off the debt, he comes up with another bright idea. Collect his father's life insurance. To do this his father must pretend to be dead.
A doctor is driven into an investigation of sinister goings-on at a race track by his mystery writer ex-wife.
A broken-down alcoholic prizefighter struggles to keep custody of his adoring son.
When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.
Troubled teenager Scott aspires to be a professional drag race car driver. Scott makes several faltering attempts to break into the world of drag racing with the help of his affluent businessman father Jeff. Undaunted, Scott decides to spurn Jeff's advice by branching out on his own by going on the road as a gopher for a successful drag race car driver.
Martin Brundle tests out his top ten super cars on the track and on the road to find out the best car.
Two bunglers (Tom Ewell, Mickey Rooney) rob a bank and buy a racehorse, then try to rob another bank.
A horse trainer who has fallen on hard times looks to his horse, Broadway Bill, to finally win the big race.
Millionaire sportsman Hiram Brighton hires gumshoe Michael Shayne to keep his spoiled daughter Phyllis away from racetrack betting windows and roulette wheels. After Phyllis slips away and continues her compulsive gambling, Shayne fakes the murder of her gambler boyfriend, who is also romancing the daughter of casino owner Benny Gordon, in order to frighten her. When the tout really ends up murdered, Shayne and Phyllis' Aunt Olivia, an avid reader of murder mysteries, both try to find the identity of the killer.
A plumber wins big at the racetrack but then his luck runs out and almost ruins his business. His manicurist girlfriend stands by him and helps him readjust to life as a plumber.
Carefree single guy Charlie Waters rooms with two lovely prostitutes, Barbara Miller and Susan Peters, and lives to gamble. Along with his glum betting buddy, Bill Denny, Charlie sets out on a gambling streak in search of the ever-elusive big payday. While Charlie and Bill have some lucky moments, they also have to contend with serious setbacks that threaten to derail their hedonistic betting binge.
Two ex-soldiers return from overseas--one of them having smuggled into the country a French orphan girl he has become attached to. They wind up running into their old sergeant--who hates them--and getting involved with a race-car builder who's trying to find backers for a new midget racer he's building.
Dreaming of ascending the underworld ladder and gaining revenge on his sadistic boss, Sal, a Mafia flunky, Frankie, tries to take a step in the right direction by "saving" an exploited, drug-addicted porn actress, Margaret.
A wholesome girl believes her new racehorse, October, is the reincarnation of her favorite uncle, Willie.
Happy-go-lucky aspiring sportswriter Lon Decker from Indiana who has aspirations of becoming a sportswriter meets the shrewd and larcenous old man, "Mac" Dougal during his wandering. Mac likes to ensure his bets on Quarter-Horse races by doping a horse or two here and there. When Lon finds out Mac intends to fleece wealthy rancher Zelda Bagley he sets out to stop him.
Bookmakers try to fix a horse race.
A Kentucky horse owner hires an ex-jockey, who is now working as a waiter, to train his thoroughbred race horse for an upcoming race. However, a gambling ring that doesn't want the horse entering the race has other plans.
Jimmy Easter is a jockey who gets shook up when he is responsible for the death of a fellow rider during a race. He gets back down to business, however, when the daughter of his ex-boss shows her faith in him.