Best Man Wins | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Sturges |
Written by | Edward Huebsch |
Based on | The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain |
Produced by | Ted Richmond |
Starring | Edgar Buchanan Anna Lee Robert Shayne |
Cinematography | Vincent Farrar |
Edited by | James Sweeney |
Music by | Mischa Bakaleinikoff |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 78 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $400,000 [1] |
Best Man Wins is a 1948 American historical drama film directed by John Sturges and starring Edgar Buchanan, Anna Lee and Robert Shayne. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It is based on the story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain.
The year is 1853 when inveterate gambler Jim Smiley returns to his hometown of Dawson's Landing in Missouri after being away for a decade from his wife and son. He brings a jumping frog which he calls Daniel Webster with him, and immediately upon his arrival to the town hotel makes a bet with Sheriff Dingle and a few others, that the frog can jump when told to do so. He wins the bet and is able to pay for his stay at the hotel with the money.
Next he visits his wife Nancy, who turns out to be his ex-wife and is about to marry the town judge, Leonidas K. Carter. He still gets to meet his son, Bob, who he has never met before. To make amends and win the boy's heart, he intends to buy him a racing Greyhound.
Jim manages to gather a sum of $300 to buy a certain dog that Bob has set his eyes on, Andrew Jackson III, and Bob trains it to race it in an upcoming contest. But Bob is made fun of by one of the judge's own spoiled sons, Monty, and Jim becomes determined to win back both his son and his wife from the snobby Leonidas.
Jim begins by renouncing gambling altogether and getting a job at the local hotel. He relapses however, by placing a bet on the judge's prize runner to win the race. Instead Bob's dog wins the race, and Jim feels guilty over having lied to Nancy and let his son down by not believing in him. Since Nancy believes he is a reformed man she agrees to marry him again.
When the wedding day comes, Jim still feels bad about his lies, when he discovers that Bob and Monty are betting. He tries to teach his son about the perils of gambling, but his guilty conscience makes him cancel the wedding. The judge also tries to stop the wedding by challenging Jim's ability to pay for the ceremony, which costs about $1,000.
The challenge turns into a bet, where Jim stakes $1,000 that his frog will beat his friend Amos' leaper, Martha Washington. Jim goes on to fix the race, but refuses to accept his prize money when he wins. In doing so, he restores his dignity in front of Nancy. Jim layer confesses to Nancy about the bet on the previous dog race, but she is still happy about his new honest behaviour and agrees to remarry him anyway. [2]
Wilfred Van Norman Lucas was a Canadian American stage actor who found success in film as an actor, director, and screenwriter.
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain. It was his first great success as a writer and brought him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. The narrator describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."
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Mandy Dingle-Kirk is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, played by Lisa Riley. She made her first appearance during the episode broadcast on 20 July 1995 and departed on 28 September 2000. She returned briefly on 16 November 2001 and departed on 26 November 2001. After seventeen years, Riley agreed to reprise the role in late 2018 for a very brief stint, and made her on-screen return on 4 January 2019, and departed after three episodes on 8 January. On 10 July 2019, it was announced that Riley would be returning on a permanent basis, and Mandy reappeared from 12 September 2019.
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