Mickey's Medicine Man

During thelate 20s early 1930s, Mickey Rooney made 78 Mickey McGuire shorts. They were inspired by the success of Hal Roach's Our Gang as well as a comic strip called "Toonerville Trolley" by Fontaine Fox. Today, it's hard to find these films and the series is mostly forgotten. It's important, though, as it gave Mickey Rooney the skills he'd need to become America's favorite actor by the late 1930s.

"MIckey's Medicine Man" is the final Mickey McGuire film. The gang's friend, Uncle Nemo (who, oddly, isn't listed in the credits) is hurt and he cannot drive his cab. Mickey decides to help but only gets the cab confiscated after he has a wreck. Not wanting to disappoint Nemo, he and the gang are inspired to make the money needed to get the cab back by putting on a medicine show. However, their concoction is made with Mexican jumping beans and the results are supposed to be comical.

The biggest problem with this short is the writing. Mickey is quite good in the lead (particularly when he's hawking their snake oil). But the story just isn't very funny...especially when they drink the stuff and start hopping about like mad.

When Mickey and his gang need to raise money, they decide to put on a medicine show. For their product they settle on horse liniment with jumping beans added to the mix.

It's the last of the Mickey Maguire shorts. Mickey Rooney had starred in them since the series' beginning in 1927, 64 in all. Based on Fontaine Fox' Toonerville Trolley comic strip, it was an attempt to compete with Hal Roach's Our Gang series and was arguably the most successful. However, Mickey was growing too old to play the role, and his cohort likewise. He was going through a growth spurt, towards the eventual 64 inches he would attain. It was time to move on. Eventually the bundle of talent would wind up at MGM, where he would become a top-grossing star in the years before the Second World War, and continue to delight audiences through his death in 2014, aged 94.... and beyond. His last feature role was in the 2017 DR. JEKYLL AND MR.HYDE, 91 years after his first movie appearance.

This is the Last one in This GREAT Series. no matter what IMDb Says THIS is the last one. the one that they have called "Mickey's Derby Day" i believe is the film "Mickey's Race" (1933) i believe? & that's a cute one & Quite GOOD! but as for this one it's NOT as good as the previous comment says. it's NOT bad but it's NOT as good as some of the other ones. there is some funny parts in it. & IF you want spoiler's you can just read his or hers? in short it's a shame that for a GREAT series like this you can kids tell WHY they stopped making this series. i think the writing wasn't as sharp as it used to be. & it's a shame as well. they NEEDED a MUCH BETTER writer for this one & under-used Billy Barty in this one i think. since it was the last they SHOULD have used him MORE! my comment 4/10