By Let It Ride is one of the most delightful 1980s movies you could ever wish to see. It’s a feelgood comedy featuring the unmistakable talent of Richard Dreyfuss. He plays Jay Trotter, a down-on-his-luck taxi driver who, having overheard a conversation about a “sure thing” at a horse race that day, decides to bet his last few remaining dollars in the hopes of winning big and changing his fortunes around.
The horse is victorious as predicted. And thus begins the greatest day in this man’s life. While it is essentially about gambling your way to riches, the film finds an endearing motif in its primary character’s faith in good fortune. It isn’t gambling if there’s no risk. And Jay Trotter fully believes that this is his day. And so it turns out to be.
In one scene, having already won a surprising amount of money on the earlier races, Trotter can’t decide which horse to place his next bet on. With a printed copy of the racing odds in his hands, he heads into the crowd to take a fake poll on who his fellow spectators are betting on for the next race. As people name their favourite, he crosses them off until he’s left with only one, the unfancied “Fleet Dreams”. Believing some kind of ethereal divine intervention has got him this far, he picks the horse and puts all his previous winnings on it.
Let It Ride – a fun, endearing horse racing comedy
Let It Ride perhaps shouldn’t be as good as it is. Director Joe Pytka is largely recognised as a commercials filmmaker and his 1989 effort with Richard Dreyfuss was only his second movie. He would only go on to make two more including 1996’s fun sports-comedy Space Jam.
But like the stars aligning for Jay Trotter in the movie, Pytka, Dreyfuss and the rest of the wonderful cast including David Johansen, Teri Garr, Robbie Coltrane and Jennifer Tilly all click. It’s a perfect ensemble to bring to life screenwriter Nancy Dowd’s spirited characters which she adapted from the 1979 novel by Jay Cronley. With wit and warmth, Dowd and Pytka conspire to deliver one of the funniest and charming comedies of the 1980s.
Largely dismissed by critics on its release and sadly ignored by audiences (the film was a box office disaster, making only $4.9 million in cinemas), Let It Ride has rightly developed a small cult following since and earned the plaudits of reviewers in retrospect.
Plenty of credit for the film’s strengths goes to novelist Jay Cronley. Dowd’s screenplay actually lifts some of the funniest lines directly from the book. It’s a fast-paced film that never outstays its welcome. Trotter enjoys a day-long odyssey in which his luck is in. And I don’t just mean at the racetrack. There’s a great line when he asks a wealthy, smartly-dressed woman if she wants a drink. She replies: “I don’t see why not, I’m on the pill!”
What makes Let It Ride stand out over other horse racing films?
There are lots of good horse racing movies like Seabiscuit, Secretariat, Dreamer and Champions, but they frequently follow a similar formula. It’s a derivative of the sports drama film with the focus on success being achieved through adversity. Essentially, it’s about overcoming the odds.
In Let It Ride, Jay Trotter does overcome the odds but this is a far more fanciful, playful and comic look at triumph that takes the focus off the professionals and places it on the spectator.
It’s also a film that surprises too. While it presents the perfect example of a feelgood movie, and a happy ending is guaranteed, Jay’s journey to his big payday has a few obstacles, and Pykta raises the tension when he needs to. There is frequent amusement to be had from Jay’s oddball friends and, as his winnings begin to draw attention, the emergence of Jay as a hero figure. Meanwhile, a subplot involving his wife adds a layer of drama and a tender human element to proceedings that make his good fortune feel that bit more special.
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