Casey's Shadow takes the movie viewer into the world of quarter horse racing. So named because the total distance one travels is a quarter of a mile. Two furlongs for those of us who follow thoroughbred racing. The horses are just bred for speed, no rating these animals. Just fly out of the starting gate faster than the rest.Walter Matthau stars as a trainer who is a widower named Lloyd Bourdelle with three sons, Steve Burns, Andrew Rubin, and Michael Hershawe. The oldest who is Burns buys a quarter horse mare in foal at a steal. The mare dies, but her colt has great potential and is named for the youngest son Casey's Shadow.This is a racing family these kids are as involved as their father is in the world of the track, like they'd have any choice if they didn't want the life. They also could badly use a woman's touch around the place, possibly to smooth out the rough edges. A wife might very well have stopped Matthau from making some critical mistakes that affect all around him, not just the family. There's a beautiful shot of the dirty dishes at the family trailer showing how badly these men have let themselves go to seed.Sporting a walrus mustache like you would have seen a century earlier, Matthau does fine in mastering a Louisiana French Cajun accent as the book the film is based on makes it clear what the family origins are and how proud of them. The kids love the old man, but also see how flawed a character he is and the mistakes he's headed for. But Matthau wants to win Futurity at the famous Ruidoso Downs Quarter Horse track at any cost.Others in the cast that stand out are Alexis Smith as an owner of quarter horses and Robert Webber a very different and cruel owner of the breed.This is a nice boy and horse story especially with Hershawe and how he takes to the new colt. But it eschews a lot of the clichés with starring animal pictures and is refreshingly different.

This is a great family film dealing with down to earth people who enjoy their local interests dealing mainly with horse racing. Lloyd Bourdelle, (Walter Matthau) is a farmer who also raises quarter horses and has a young son named Casey Bourdelle, who loves horses. Lloyd is able to raise a full grown horse who he calls "Casey's Shadow" after his son and this horse breaks all speed records and is a possible winner of a million dollar race. Sarah Blue, ( Alexis Smith) becomes interested in this horse and offers to buy the horse for $500,00 dollars, however, this horse receives serious injuries to his legs and Lloyd receives a serious set-back which upsets the entire family. Walter Matthau gave an outstanding performance and this is a great film to view and enjoy.

A good movie for horse enthusiasts and most others. It's a horse racing movie, and it's a "little man gets his chance" movie, and it's a "how far would you go?" movie. Walter Mattau once again proves his adaptability as an actor. He fits right in as Lloyd Bourdelle, a Louisiana Cajun horse bum. This movie gives you a rare screen glimpse of Lousiana Cajun horse drag racing. He has a young quarter horse who is a top racing prospect. "had nothing but a filling station and a good horse." The Bourdelles seize the opportunity to make it big by taking the horse, Shadow, to Ruidoso, New Mexico, to get ready to run in the All-American Futurity. But how far will Lloyd go to win the fame and fortune? Also memorable from this movie are scenes of Lloyd spitting tobacco juice and waiting for his truck to start.

Walter Matthau can always improve a mediocre film, and this movie proves it. He turns in a very realistic performance as a small-time horse trainer and single father, not sugar-coating either role.He can be, by turns, soft-hearted and doting, then iron-handed to his boys, and we can see the same dichotomy in his approach to horse training (we see that he doesn't want his young prospect racing horse overworked and hurt in small-time races, but he seems to be willing to risk the horse's life when he gets into the big time).This is just one of Matthau's wonderful performances, and one that I highly recommend.