I am very surprised by the reviews for "The Return of October", as they are mostly positive. None of them really say that it's a bad movie...and i sure feel it really is pretty bad and embarrassing to watch!
Terry (Terry Moore) is a young woman being raised by her uncle who loves horses and horse racing. The old guy is pretty sick, however, and soon dies. As for Terry, she soon sees a horse at an auction and almost immediately assumes it's her uncle....reincarnated as a horse!
Now this is NOT the only strange things about Terry. When she meets up with Professor Bassett (Glenn Ford), their 'meet cute' is pretty awful...with Terry accusing him of stealing $5 from her and calling a cop on him AND getting him a speeding ticket...both of which are HER fault. In fact, every time he's around Terry, the poor Professor ends up having his life disrupted...including getting him to buy that race horse. She promises to repay him but can't...and to recoup the university's money he spent on the 'uncle', the university agrees to not fire him IF he writes a paper about this kooky young woman. What no one knows is that Terry's extended family are crooks and they're going to use her delusion to have her institutionalized.
This film makes "Mr. Ed" seem like an episode of "Masterpiece Theatre"! Why? Well, the film is so frequently kooky and utterly ridiculous by comparison. I just cannot believe the folks in the movie could do this without feeling a LOT of embarrassment.
Now I am NOT saying this story might not have been able to work. Heck, I enjoy the Francis the Talking Mule movies...and they are pretty silly. But the writing for Moore's character, in particular, makes her seem less kooky and cute and more just annoying and obnoxious. Her delivery throughout the story sure didn't help either. Overall, a film just too silly for me to take seriously in any way...and one of Glenn Ford's films I am pretty sure he regretted making. How could he be proud of this...and, especially, his courtroom theatrics towards the end of the movie!
