Compagnons d'infortune

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.

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.

A fairly routine story which telegraphs much of its storyline and is, by and large, an unremarkable horse story. But there is a difference in this one - this one stars Mickey Rooney, one of Hollywood's brightest, most talented stars. And that makes all the difference.

Mickey is a track stableboy who loves the horse he is assigned, so much so that he buys the horse for a song when its owner gives up on it. He teams up with Wallace Beery, who turns out to be an ex-veterinarian but is now an alcoholic hobo. Together they turn the horse into a champion, with a few side stories thrown in for good measure.

Rooney and Beery play well off each other, two pros doing what they do best. Mickey can turn on the tears whenever needed and Beery could play a slob better than anyone. There are some good character acting alongside the pair, but those two make the picture go all by themselves. "Stablemates" is 'B' picture material with top shelf Hollywood actors.

Stablemates is a classic family story about a boy, his horse, and his "Pop". It will make you laugh and it will make you cry. Stablemates is a sweet little film that leaves you with an all around good feeling. If you have a soft spot for older movies, you will enjoy this one. Watching this oldie, but goody reminds us that the world isn't such a dreary place after all. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Why the Hollywood producers of today continue to insist on regurgitating a very stale action/adventure CGI (computer generated imagery) formula to equate to box office success is pure stupidity. Since all Hollywood producers are competing for the abundance of entertainment dollars from the same (what seems to be) stunned audience, I would suggest that these same Hollywood producers should learn a basic film development lesson by sitting down and viewing this now 80 year old film "Stablemates". If even one of these so called Hollywood producers took 90 minutes to watch the film Stablemates they would be enlightened on a very simple formula that works to put bums in movie theater seats.

The formula that has proved to work time and time again is to put together on the large screen a young up and coming actor with a seasoned veteran actor, and provide them with a story that includes light humor, hard knocks, and of course an animal that needs tender loving care. In essence, we the audience are smarter than today's Hollywood producers think we are. Today's Hollywood producers seem to think that they can wow an audience with more and more of the same crap CGI, instead of encouraging their audience to turn off their cell phones, stop texting, and to listen to the conversation taking place on the silver screen, and the emotional interactions of the film stars such as in this film Stablemates.

Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney had such great on screen chemistry in this film Stablemates and if it were not for Wallace Beery's unfortunate demise at a relatively young age (64) I am quite sure we would have a series of films starring these two remarkable warm and loving entertainers. They also starred in the 1935 film Ah, Wilderness! I was also pleasantly surprised to see the harsh and bombastic character Beulah Flanders, (played superbly by Margaret Hamilton better known for her role as Miss Gulch / The Wicked Witch of the West, in the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz) who in this film was a widower five (5) times over and she insists on marrying Wallace Beery's character, the has-been drunkard veterinarian, Doc Thomas 'Tom' Terry, played to be her sixth (6th) husband.

I don't believe I am an old soul who is unique in the opinion that Stablemates is an underrated film classic. Rather, i implore families of all ages and all generations to watch this film Stablemates that uses a simple formula of utilizing great actors, a small cast, a hard knocks life background, an injured animal, the sport of kings, horse racing, and overcoming long odds to bring to the silver screen what all human beings have in them, hope and inspiration.

This is a truly under rated classic that deserves your full attention, so put down those cell phones, laptops, and gameboys and sit back and enjoy a film classic from the year 1938.