Stablemates

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.

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.

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

"Stablemates" is a very schmaltzy and formulaic film--there's really no getting around that. Like nearly all of Wallace Beery films, he plays a lovable rogue who eventually redeems himself. You also KNOW how the film is going to end shortly after the film begins. And, there is sentiment galore! Yet, despite all this, it's a dandy film--one of the best horse films you can find.

While I mentioned Beery, the star of the film is Mickey Rooney who plays, not surprisingly, Mickey! Mickey has no family and his greatest live is to hang around the horse track. And, of all the horses, he adores 'Lady Q'--a horse who he believes in, though hardly anyone else does. In fact, the horse's owner is planning on having him put down and Mickey begs the guy to give him the horse in lieu of what he owes Mickey in salary. The short-sighted owner agrees. However, with absolutely no money and an injured horse, what is he to do? Well, he soon meets up with a slippery character, Tom (Beery) and it seems obvious to everyone that Tom is no good. But, Mickey soon comes to believe in him--especially after Tom operates on the horse and saves her. But Tom acts VERY cagey about all this. It's obvious he's a vet but strongly denies it. What gives?! In the meantime, Tom and Mickey become like father and son. Can Mickey stand to learn the truth about Tom? And, can Lady Q win the big race? As I said, this is a formulaic and predictable picture. Yet, because the script is lovely and the acting so nice (particularly Rooney's) you cannot help but believe in them and root for the characters. It's a film that I liked despite all its flaws. A wonderful family picture.

I agree with the person who wrote that the title Stablemates starring Mickey Rooney and Wallace Beery is all you need to know about this film, it practically tells you what's going to happen. But the reason is because these two stars with their indelible images at the heights of their respective careers explains all. Beery and Rooney are two of the greatest scene stealers of all time in the movies and director Sam Wood must have felt like a referee since a whole lot of the film is just with these two.

Rooney is an orphan kid who hustles a few dollars at the racetrack and Beery is a drunk whose inebriation belies the fact he knows a great deal about the sport of kings. When Rooney gets a horse from Oscar O'Shea that's about to be shipped to the glue factory for failing to live up to his promise, we learn a great deal about Beery. It seems he was a promising veterinarian and he performs a delicate operation that relieves a small tumor on the horse's hoof. After that its Rooney, Beery and the horse three for one and one for three.

Later on we also find out that Beery is wanted on a manslaughter rap and that's the reason he's kept a low and drunken profile for years. Still the two of them have the horse entered in a big stakes race and will they get to achieve their goal.

Stablemates also has a nice performance from Margaret Hamilton a five time widow with whom the two Stablemates take shelter. She'd kind of like to make Beery number six and Wally with some trepidation is ready to go for it. Can't be worse than jail.

The tracks in the California area provide the authentic atmosphere. A lot of the film was shot on the Bay Meadows track area in Burlington, California.

But Stablemates is first and foremost a star vehicle for two very big stars in every sense of the word.