Keep 'Em Rolling: Horses, bureaucracy, and Walter Huston

Is it worth your time?

If you like movies that smell like old barracks and damp horse blankets, yeah, give it a go. It’s definitely not for the 'fast-paced' crowd who need a jump cut every three seconds to stay awake.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Keep 'Em Rolling (1934) through its definitive frames.

Actually, if you hate seeing animals in sad situations, stay far, far away. The glue factory mention alone is enough to ruin your afternoon. 🐎

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Keep 'Em Rolling (1934) through its definitive frames.

Walter Huston is doing some really heavy lifting here. He’s got this way of looking at a horse that makes you believe he’s actually talking to the thing, not just reciting lines off a script.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Keep 'Em Rolling (1934) through its definitive frames.

The whole conflict is built on one of those soulless 'efficiency experts' who probably never stepped foot in a stable. It feels weirdly modern, in a bad way. Everyone’s worked for a guy like that.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Keep 'Em Rolling (1934) through its definitive frames.

The relationship between Benny and Rodney is basically the only thing keeping the movie from feeling like a dull training manual. There’s a scene where they’re just standing there, and the camera lingers for a bit too long. It’s quiet. Maybe a little too quiet, but it works.

I’ve seen A Successful Failure and the tone there is way different, way more cynical. This? This is earnest to a fault. It really wants you to care about the retirement pension, which sounds boring until you’re sitting there sweating it out with them.

The 16th Field Artillery guys look like they’re actually doing the work, not just posing. It gives the background this grit that you don't get in polished studio stuff. You can almost smell the hay.

Some of the dialogue is clunky, sure. People talk in these stiff, formal paragraphs that nobody actually uses. It didn't bother me much, though. It’s got that weirdly charming quality of a story told by your grandfather who keeps changing the ending every time he tells it.

Random thoughts scribbled in my notebook:

• Why is the efficiency expert always wearing such a clean suit? It’s suspicious.
• Rodney the horse has better comedic timing than half the human actors.
• The Fort Myer setting feels authentic, even if it’s clearly just a stage.
• I’m still not sure if the 'glue factory' threat is meant to be funny or just devastating. It’s both?

It’s not a masterpiece. It doesn’t try to be. It’s just a movie about a man and his horse trying to survive the paperwork. Honestly, that’s enough for me today.