LADY ON THE HUNT

A fairly outsize extravaganza pictures the plight of man of distinction, Caleb Treat's difficulties with local Virginia farmers when he plans the opening meet for the New Leicestershire Ernt Club. His fabulous wealth, the emollient efforts of Mag Winters, who is running his stable for him, the importance of the meet, all count for naught against the embattled farmers. The coming of super-film star, Delilah Winsor, and her stand-in secretary, the efforts of a strange young Englishman to prove his worth on horseback, the sensational aspects of the preparations, all blow up into a wry, crisp caricature of the huntin' set and its unworldly ways. That smart operator Treat's hunt turns out to be a success -- even if it is the first and last of its kind -- is topped by a neat twist in getting Caleb out of the horse country and on to the bounding main. Here and there some funny enough moments -- but on the whole not only special interests for this but an acquired taste.