Hollywood Handicap (1938)

• 52%
• 1938
• Comedy
• Music
• Buster Keaton
• Charles Ruggles
• Mickey Rooney
• Stuart Erwin

Colonel Canfield is retiring from horseracing and is auctioning off his stock. The Canfield Stable Hands (The Original Sing Band) are given prize race horse Suzie Q in appreciation of all of their hard work over the years. The stable hands envision great wealth. To raise funds for the entry fee to the Hollywood Handicap, they sell their musical instruments at auction but the auctioneer (Don Brodie) walk away with most of the proceeds as his fee. The Singing Stablehands are fortunate to hired to perform at the turf club. The boys improvise by mostly using their mouths as musical instruments and get coins tossed into the horseshoe arranged tables by the patrons. Finally, they have the funding necessary for the race. Race day arrives with a host of stars in the audience including Charles Ruggles, Stuart Erwin, June Collyer, Mickey Rooney, Bing Crosby, Oliver Hardy, Ruby Keeler, Charlie Butterworth, Al Jolson, Robert Montgomery, Edgar Bergen and Dorothy Lamour among others. Suzie Q seems eager to race but is slow to start and trails the pack. The boys think singing will inspire the horse to run, but when the horse hears the catchy tune, she pulls up and starts to dance. The race is lost. As the boys are about to turn on their leader who got them into this mess, a Hollywood producer (Cyril Ring) offers the boys a $250 per week contract to have the horse appear in a circus picture. All is well.