Thoroughbreds Don't Cry

Left insolvent in America by the death of his grandfather, a young English lad learns that THOROUGHBREDS DON'T CRY. Now it's time for his new buddies, an irrepressible girl & an excitable jockey, to help him make his race horse a winner.

This little film, with a horse race plot both contrived & convoluted, is mere entertainment fluff. Its real significance is that it was the first movie to co-star Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland. Rooney is hyper-energetic & Garland exhibits her wide-eyed exuberance; together they hint at much better films to come in the future. Ronald Sinclair receives equal billing with them, and he does a good job with his role, but up against the Dynamic Duo he never really stood a chance. His celebrity would prove to be rather transitory.

Forrester Harvey does fine in a small performance as a jolly horse trainer. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith lends a touch of class to his role as an English gentleman. But it is the inimitable Sophie Tucker who steals the film as Garland's mother, a big sharp-tongued woman you wouldn't want to trifle with. For some unfathomable reason, the script gives her no chance to sing. Unbelievable! At the very least, a Tucker/Garland duet could have made the film truly memorable.

Movie mavens will recognize Lionel Belmore as a butler & Elisha Cook, Jr. as a jockey, both unbilled.

A `pookah', by the way, is an Irish ghost horse.

The casting in this film is rather unusual. While Freddie Bartholomew was apparently supposed to be in the movie, he was either in a contract dispute or in seclusion until his voice changed (according to Judy Garland)...and the studio tried to find a Bartholomew-like actor to take his place. That is why Ronald Sinclair (a New Zealander) was chosen to appear in this film...one of only a small number of films in which he acted. Interestingly, Sinclair has quite a few Hollywood credits--most of them as an Editor!

"Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" is monumental because it is the first pairing of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. They'd go on to make many more films together...and this being the first might explain why Rooney does NOT play a typical sort of part for a Garland-Rooney film. Instead of the usual likable guy, he's a fat-head jockey--one that definitely needs to be taken down a peg or two. As for Garland, she 's a nice girl who likes to find excuses to sing...and so her role is very typical of their later films.

When the movie begins, Sir Peter Calverton is preparing to take his prize horse, the Pookah, to America for some big race. No, this IS a horse and it's NOT invisible...despite the name for the creature being the same as Harvey in the famous Jimmy Stewart film! His grandson, Roger (Sinclair) accompanies him and eventually makes friends with Timmie (Rooney) and Cricket (Garland). But alas, things do NOT go swimmingly--and I won't say more because I don't want to spoil the plot. Suffice to say that Timmie and Cricket need to work together to help poor Roger and his horse.

Overall, this is a very entertaining film--one that would probably appeal more to kids but still have appeal to all ages. It has all the typical MGM polish and the story well worth seeing. I particularly liked that there wasn't that much singing and no dancing...unlike many of the other Garland- Rooney films. I know some folks like the singing and dancing, but to me it often got in the way of the story...and that's why the story here is stronger than I expected.

By the way, there is a hospital scene where Timmie talks to the receptionist. This lady is none other than Marie Blake ('Blossom Rock' from "The Addams Family")....who also played the hospital receptionist in the Dr. Kildaire films (also from MGM).

... who didn't even appear in it.

Sir Peter Calverton (C. Aubrey Smith) and his young grandson Roger (Ronald Sinclair) come to the United States from England with their racehorse Pooka. They seek out the best jockey around, Timmie Donovan (Mickey Rooney), who has a swelled head to match his reputation. Using some reverse psychology, the Calvertons get Timmie to agree to ride their horse in the upcoming big race, and the Calvertons really need that success because they are castle rich and bank poor.

Timmie and Roger come to be friends after a rocky start that includes both guys giving each other black eyes. But then Timmie gets word that his long-estranged father needs an expensive operation, and he's considering throwing the race to get the money he needs. Complications ensue.

This is hardly a prototype film for Mickey and Judy. In fact, Judy Garland and her fabulous voice take a backseat to the relationship between Mickey and Ronald Sinclair. There is some romance inserted, but it's an insinuation of an adolescent crush between Judy and Ronald versus Judy and Mickey.

Ronald Sinclair was a more than adequate placeholder for Freddie Bartholomew, who was supposed to have the part of young Roger Calverton. But he was in a contract dispute with MGM and on top of that , his voice started to change and crack just as filming began. Bartholomew missed a vital year of film work and would never really recapture the star power he had before 1937. As for Mickey and Judy, this film was like what "Manhattan Melodrama" was for Powell and Loy - maybe not great shakes in and of itself, but it did show the studio how much chemistry they had together.

Look out for Blossom Rock (Mama in the Addams Family) as a hospital switchboard operator. She played the same role in the Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie movies. Also look fast for Elisha Cook Jr. Of the noirs in a bit part as a jockey.

A rum affair. Always noted as Judy's first teaming with Mickey Rooney, but her love interest is Ronald Sinclair, and the plot is more interested in the boys', ahem, friendship. I am bored by constant readings of old movies as coded gay, but you can't ignore the scenes when the boy owner and his jockey move together on horseback, or a protracted episode of Timmie massaging Roger's legs and trying to keep Cricket out of the room. As a jockey Timmie specialises in 'coming from behind'.

Another mystery concerns casting. MGM's first thought was to reunite their British boy wonder, Freddie Bartholomew, with C. Aubrey Smith, reprising the grandfather-grandson relationship of 'Little Lord Fauntleroy'. Barthlomew reportedly dropped out due to a contract fight; yet he stars in the trailer introducing Sinclair, falsely, as an old pal. Judy wrote that he had been dropped when his voice broke.

Sinclair was a New Zealander and not quite as veddy veddy British as most kids from over the water in pre-war Hollywood. Though obliged to wear short pants in most scenes, he does okay in the puppy-love passages with Judy, but soon faded as an actor, transforming into the editor of Roger Corman's horror films.

Rooney, already in the Jolson class for self-confidence, breezes through the plot's twists (one of them, involving his crooked dad, is ingenious) and displays his gift for emoting without seeming soppy. The great C. Aubrey is only in the first half but scores in contriving to make Timmie hitch a ride on The Pookah. Did Cricket get her unusual monicker as a play on the ball game Smith and the English Colony brought to California?

Judy's role is undercooked: her showbiz ambitions remain unfulfilled and her main task is to feed Sophie Tucker, repeating their double act in 'Broadway Melody of 1938'. Again Tucker is cast as a den mother: she does some sleuthing but no singing. Judy's only song, delivered while barred from the massage, is 'Got a Pair of New Shoes'. This was later picked up by Eleanor Powell, star of 'BM38', for her cabaret tap dancing; also Smith and Tucker reappeared in Powell's last vehicle, 'Sensations of 1945'.

A poignant note: uncredited as one of the track stewards is Francis X. Bushman, the rival of Ramon Novarro in 'Ben Hur', MGM's biggest silent picture. From chariot race to horse race in 12 years: a long way down.

In nine subsequent movies Garland and Rooney would cement their status as America's prototypical teenagers- but not yet in this jolly little programmer.

The first film to feature Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland came up short in the music department as there was only one song written for the film Got A Brand New Pair Of Shoes and it was Judy's. I've a feeling that a lot might have been left on the cutting room floor because Sophie Tucker was also in this film as Judy's grandmother and she sung not a note.

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry features Mickey as a jockey famous for his daring come from behind wins in the stretch and Judy the granddaughter of Sophie Tucker who runs a jockey's boardinghouse where Mickey resides. Into their lives comes C. Aubrey Smith and his young grandson Ronald Sinclair who are titled, but cash poor with only one asset, a prize winning stakes horse called The Pooka. Yes, I do believe it is named for that spirit who manifested himself as a six foot white rabbit in Harvey.

Mickey's the best there is at his profession, but he's fatally compromised because of a no-good gambler of a father in Charles D. Brown who pretends he's on death's door. That's to extort a pledge from Mickey to throw the race The Pooka is running in. Mickey does it and finds out he's been framed. He's put everybody in a jackpot because of this and there is one death that results from it.

Ronald Sinclair substitutes nicely for Freddie Bartholomew who this role was originally intended. But the chemistry with Mickey and Judy was readily apparent and MGM would team them several more times until Words And Music in 1948 which was Mickey's last film for MGM.

But I like more singing and dancing when I see Mickey and Judy and I think more was originally intended. Just the mere fact that Sophie Tucker was in the film leads me to believe she must have had a number that ended up on the cutting room floor. Perhaps one day we'll see a director's cut.

The racing sequences at Santa Anita were handled well, the track was only a few years old at the time and the movie land crowd were frequent visitors and owners of race horses out there. I've seen newsreel footage of Mickey Rooney enjoying the sport of kings there when he was not on a shooting schedule.

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry is a good start for a most auspicious star team, but a whole lot better was to come.