User Reviews

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 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.

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.

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 of the sweetest movies ever made. Grab a box of tissues because you will surely need them! Mickey Rooney is in top form here. Proving once again his dramatic and comic skill! The man was and is a genius. In my opinion there has never been a better actor. Just as Carl Reiner, Cary Grank, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. or John Frankenheimer. Mickey Rooney was the master of cryer as well. He can tear you heart out just as easily as he can make you laugh. I'm not a big Wallace Berry fan but he's great in this film. If you love horses this movie is for you. In my opinion it's as great as National Velvet or the Black stallion. Both starring Mickey Rooney. Also, another great horse film starring Mickey Rooney is Down The Stretch from 1936 or 37. Anyhow, this film is highly recommended for all Rooney, Berry or horse fan! Enjoy!

"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.

Stableboy Mickey Rooney hooks up with alcoholic former veterinarian Noah Beery to save a lame horse from the glue factory. They form a bond, go on a bit of a road trip, and end up in a big race. On the way they find friendship and redemption.

The story doesn't exactly break new ground. But when you have stars like Beery and Rooney I'm not sure it matters. They both deliver the goods. You can watch this with the whole family, 8 or 80, crippled or crazy.

It's not a huge supporting cast, but three bl3ck actors get speaking roles. Unfortunately, all three are Stepnfetchits. I get it, I'm looking back 80 years and things change, but it makes me cringe every time I hear a black actor having to deliver lines like he just came straight to the studio from a Mississippi cotton field.

If you're a Wallace Beery fan, chances are you've seen him in quite a few movies where his grizzly exterior gets softened by an endearing little kid. If you want to see him get softened up by Mickey Rooney, check out Stablemates. Stablemates is one of the precursors to how cute it was when Mickey Rooney acted in National Velvet and later in The Black Stallion. This is the second flick in which he loves horses and ends up being a jockey. If you like him in this one, next up, rent Thoroughbreds Don't Cry.

Mickey starts off as a mere stableboy who loves an injured horse. To save the horse's life, he buys him from the owner with all his savings, and he recruits the crusty, alcoholic Wallace Beery to operate and save the horse's leg and life. Wallace isn't very good at hiding his past, and it turns out he used to be a great veterinarian until a horse took a fatal fall and sent him into hiding. Their relationship is a little creepy by modern standards, with a teenaged Mickey Rooney glomming onto a total stranger and suggesting they adopt each other and live together as father and son. Yes, they bonded over Mickey's injured horse, but their instant, goofy affection for one another doesn't translate in today's world. As the movie progresses, they do bond and you can't help but root for their friendship. Just as you're talking yourself into it, Wallace has to ruin it by saying tearfully as they're about to be parted, "I guess it would seem kinda sissy, wouldn't it, for two grown men like us to kiss?" Mickey, equally as sniffly, says if they kiss on the cheek it would be alright.

The best part of the movie is when Margaret Hamilton comes in as a love interest for Wallace Beery. She's a no-nonsense dame on a farm who appreciates his hard work. Can't imagine either of them in a romance? You might want to check this out, but don't expect to like the rest of it.

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.

Really one of Mickey Rooney's best parts. Full of emotion and comradee with him and Wallace Beery as the washed up drunk Veterinarian. Beery always worked well with young actors...Jackie Cooper in the Champ. Also one of Beery's great roles. Mickey sure was cute back then.

One of my all time favorite movies, and one of the best movies ever made about Thoroughbred horse racing. All horse racing fans will enjoy watching this movie very much. Wallace Berry and Mickey Rooney give excellent performances, too make the movie very enjoyable to watch.

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.