Mickey the Great

Although Mickey Rooney made dozens of Mickey McGuire films in his early career, the folks who brought us a compilation film, "Mickey the Great", only used five films to tell this story. I have no idea why they didn't use any of the others.

The film consists of some women talking about Mickey McGuire...and then much of four different shorts are shown. Why they chose to string them together this way with VERY cheap new material with the women, I have no idea. And the overall 'film' seems a bit sad to watch.

My advice is buy the old Mickey McGuire shorts and see them yourself without having them edited down and crammed together like they did in "Mickey the Great". I know Alpha Video has released some of these cute old comedy shorts (much like the Our Gang shorts)...and don't think you'll enjoy seeing them as there are in this compilation.

Wraparound footage was done in the 1940s featuring three women reminiscing about their times as Mickey McGuire's gang members. It was unclear to me if they were recalling actual memories, or the movies they were in, nut it matters mot. This frame is just a hook to show a few Our Gang style comedy shorts. In the first, Mickey sets up his own radio station. Next, he helps find a chicken thief, to get his black pal's uncle out of jail. Then, sets up a shoeshine stand to get many for a Milk drive. The best episode has the gang dressing up as wild animals only to encounter a real (or at least, a man in a suit) gorilla. The last concerns a trotting race against their snobbish rival, who is their deadly enemy in most of the stories. The films are simplistic fun bu interesting to see the great Rooney before he become the top movie star he was to become. Also, look for Billy Barty as his little brother. Barty went on to have a very long career, although limited by his being a midget. The Barty highlight is his impersonation of a chicken!