Best Man Wins

Best Man Wins is a 1948 film directed by John Sturges, based on a story by Mark Twain.

Plot

The year is 1853 when inveterate gambler Jim Smiley (Edgar Buchanan) returns to his hometown of Dawson's Landing in Missouri after being away for a decade from his wife and son. He brings a jumping frog which he calls Daniel Webster with him, and immediately upon his arrival to the town hotel makes a bet with Sheriff Dingle (Stanley Andrews) and a few others, that the frog can jump when told to do so. He wins the bet and is able to pay for his stay at the hotel with the money.

Next he visits his wife Nancy (Anna Lee), who turns out to be his ex-wife and is about to marry the town judge, Leonidas K. Carter (Robert Shayne). He still gets to meet his son, Bob (Gary Gray), who he has never met before. To make amends and win the boy's heart, he intends to buy him a racing Greyhound.

Jim manages to gather a sum of $300 to buy a certain dog that Bob has set his eyes on, Andrew Jackson III, and Bob trains it to race it in an upcoming contest. But Bob is made fun of by one of the judge's own spoiled sons, Monty (Bill Sheffield), and Jim becomes determined to win back both his son and his wife from the snobby Leonidas.