While attending community college on Long Island, I would spend most of my downtime studying. NOT!!! Instead, I would go and play video games at an establishment called "Pinball Palace." The joint was run by James Johnson. A tall fellow, lanky in stature with a toothpick attached to the side of his mouth. Every so often he would ask me to go to the Off Track Betting office and place bets for him, mainly harness racing. Oddly, he would rarely ask me for the receipt /ticket stubs for the purchase. I would offer the stubs but he would say, "You Hold 'em." One day I got to thinking instead of going to place the bet, just pocket the money in hopes of him losing. Such a despicable act on my part, but I figured as long as the losing streak would continue I might as well reap the harvest of his bad luck. The Horse Player is a curious sort of story about a Church in a badly needed repair. The elder priest who runs the parish, Father Amion (Claude Rains) finds large denominations of bills in the collection box. Each day he would receive generous donations when a Mr. Sheridan (Ed Gardner) comes forward and tells the curious Father his recent philanthropy toward the church. Sheridan tells him that the power of prayer and attending daily Mass is due to his winning streak at the Horse Track. Father is baffled at first but realizes that gambling winnings can fix his leaky roof. Sheridan offers the Priest a no-miss winner in tomorrow's race. The priest jumps at the chance and throws in all his savings on Sally's Pal. Then the priest realizes that gambling is sinful and asks the Bishop (Kenneth McKenna) for advice. The Bishop instructs the Priest to pray for the horse to lose. The results are astounding as only a Hitchock directed story would develop. Ed Gardner's performance was so natural as our trackside prognosticator and plays well off the kindly Claude Rains. This is one of 17 episodes Alfred Hitchcock directed in his titled half-hour program. Luckily I also used the power of prayer and prayed for the horse not to win and Jimmy was no more the wiser.
Review of The Horseplayer
