Stablemates

Former horse trainer Tom Terry (Wallace Beery) is a drunk. Stable boy Mickey (Mickey Rooney) aspires to be a jockey. They become friends and go on the road with a horse.

Beery and Rooney are a good pairing. They have good chemistry and comedic timing. This is a fine road story and these are good characters. Margaret Hamilton has a good section. It's fine family entertainment.

Neat little film about an orphaned teen who loves a horse and the old stew bum who befriends him.

Mickey Rooney (at age 18) stars as the kid who hangs around race track stables and who earns a broken down horse in lieu of pay. Wallace Beery is the drunken drifter who happens upon the stable where Rooney tends his horse.What a pleasure to see these two great pros working together.

The film is too sentimental for today's audiences but really packs a wallop with a simple story, humor, and great acting.

Margaret Hamilton gets a good supporting role as "the widow," and also good are Arthur Hohl, Marjorie Gateson, Minor Watson, Spencer Charters, and Oscar O'Shea.

Beery is a total delight as the rumpled bum who still has a spark within him. Rooney is so spontaneous and fresh faced it's impossible not to like him. Oddly there is a scene of Rooney riding his horse in the ocean surf that presages a similar scene in The Black Stallion (with Kelly Reno) 40-odd years later.

Really one of Mickey Rooney's best parts. Full of emotion and comradee with him and Wallace Beery as the washed up drunk Veterinarian. Beery always worked well with young actors...Jackie Cooper in the Champ. Also one of Beery's great roles. Mickey sure was cute back then.

This is one film which needs only to be described by its title and the co-stars' names, "'Stablemates' - starring Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney!" is all you really need to know. Both performers play their regular on-screen personalities; no "acting" stretch is required (or needed). Mr. Rooney is an orphaned teenaged jockey with an ailing racehorse named "Lady Q". Mr. Beery is an alcoholic veterinarian who needs to clean-up. The inevitable happens.

They decide to become father and son, "'til death do us part." But, the relationship is challenged by the bottle and the big race. Rooney gets to show off his trim physique in some shirtless scenes. Marvelous Margaret Hamilton (as Beulah Flanders) has a small, but sweet, supporting role. The industry standard "Quigley Poll" of box office stars had Rooney at #4 and Beery at #12 for the year 1938, and this film was, as Rooney says within, "made to order."

****** Stablemates (10/7/38) Sam Wood ~ Mickey Rooney, Wallace Beery, Margaret Hamilton, Arthur Hohl

This is one of the sweetest movies ever made. Grab a box of tissues because you will surely need them! Mickey Rooney is in top form here. Proving once again his dramatic and comic skill! The man was and is a genius. In my opinion there has never been a better actor. Just as Carl Reiner, Cary Grank, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or John Frankenheimer. Mickey Rooney was the master of cryer as well. He can tear you heart out just as easily as he can make you laugh. I'm not a big Wallace Berry fan but he's great in this film. If you love horses this movie is for you. In my opinion it's as great as National Velvet or the Black stallion. Both starring Mickey Rooney. Also, another great horse film starring Mickey Rooney is Down The Stretch from 1936 or 37. Anyhow, this film is highly recommended for all Rooney, Berry or horse fan! Enjoy!