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
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