This Sporting Age: Polo, Revenge, and Bad Vibes

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, if you like watching 1930s dramas where men act like they’re in a Shakespeare play while sitting on horses, you might dig this. If you get bored by stiff dialogue and people talking about 'honor' every five minutes, stay away. It’s a strange little relic.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of This Sporting Age (1932) through its definitive frames.

Jack Holt plays Captain Steele with this intense, bulging-eyed energy. He’s a guy who clearly has never heard of a therapist, so he just keeps it all bottled up until he can hit someone with a mallet.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of This Sporting Age (1932) through its definitive frames.

The whole conflict centers on Evalyn Knapp, who plays the daughter. She’s fine, but she spends most of the movie looking like she’s caught in the middle of two guys who are just measuring each other’s egos.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of This Sporting Age (1932) through its definitive frames.

The Polo Problem

Listen, I didn’t think I could get stressed out by a polo match, but here we are. It’s not exactly The Last Egyptian when it comes to thrills, but the way these guys stare at each other while riding is just… a lot.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of This Sporting Age (1932) through its definitive frames.

The movie is weirdly casual about the ending, too. Like, nobody seems to care that a guy just got murdered on the field. They’re all just like, 'Well, he was a cad, so I guess that’s fine!'

It reminds me a bit of the social awkwardness in Puppy Love, except instead of puppy antics, it’s a guy dying because of a grudge. The tonal shift is pretty wild.

• The horses look like they’re the only ones having a good time.
• The 'gentlemanly' code of conduct is just a fancy excuse for being a jerk.
• That one scene in the club house—the lighting makes everyone look like ghosts.

There’s a weird vibe to the whole thing. It feels like the writers, James Kevin McGuinness and Dudley Nichols, were trying to make a statement about class and justice, but it just comes off as a very angry dad movie. 🐎

It’s not as polished as some of the stuff from that era. You can see the seams. Sometimes the camera just lingers on a reaction shot for so long that you start to wonder if the actor forgot their lines or if the director just fell asleep.

If you're looking for a breezy watch, this isn't it. But if you want to see a guy handle a family crisis by playing a high-stakes game of polo, you’ll probably find something to enjoy here. It’s messy, it’s kind of mean, and it’s definitely unforgettable for all the wrong reasons.