| Sporting Blood | |
| Director: | Charles Brabin |
| Producer: | Marion Davies |
| Screenplay: | Charles Brabin |
| Starring: | Clark Gable Ernest Torrence Madge Evans |
| Music: | William Axt |
| Cinematography: | Harold Rosson |
| Editing: | William S. Gray (uncredited) |
| Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Runtime: | 82 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $302,000[1] |
| Gross: | $893,000 |
Sporting Blood is a 1931 American MGM pre-Code sports drama film directed by Charles Brabin. The film stars Clark Gable (in his first starring role), Ernest Torrence, and Madge Evans. Two other pictures bore this same title, one released in 1916 by Fox and another by MGM in Sporting Blood (1940). Although they, too, centered on horse racing, none of the plots had any direct connection with the others.
Gambler Rid Riddell (Clark Gable) works for Tip Scanlon (Lew Cody), a crooked gambler, who buys Tommy-Boy, a racehorse from a wealthy man (Hallam Cooley) whose spoiled wife (Marie Prevost) loses interest. Tip and Rid consistently win with the horse in both honestly and dishonestly run races. But before long, Tommy Boy loses a race he wasn't supposed to, and the mob is after Tip.
Tip is murdered but not before giving Tommy Boy to his girlfriend (Madge Evans) who sets out to rehabilitate herself and the horse. The horse rebounds. After an attempt at sabotage, the horse wins the Kentucky Derby, and Rid wins the girl.
According to MGM records, the film earned $547,000 in the US and Canada and $346,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $148,000.[1]