TinsHeadline Touches You

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

tavm When Mickey Rooney died last month, I got a jones to watch some of his movies so when I went to the library, and this was among the films there, I had to get it especially since I knew this was the first one he made with Judy Garland. He plays a jockey and Ms. Garland plays the niece of the owner of the boardinghouse for jockeys. But the main character is played by Ronald Sinclair, another teen who's from England (actually Sinclair was from New Zealand), who has a horse he wants to enter into the America's Cup race. I'll stop there and just say it was quite fascinating watching Rooney and Garland bicker and also helping Sinclair in his troubles. Ms. Garland had one song she performed a few times in the movie. Her character dreams of stardom which, of course, is what happened to Judy in real life. Legendary singer Sophie Tucker plays her aunt but she doesn't have a number for some reason. All in all, Thoroughbreds Don't Cry was quite an entertaining programmer.

mark.waltz A year after playing a jockey over at Warner Brothers in "Down the Stretch", his home studio of MGM cast him in a similar role where he shamelessly overacts. The story actually focuses on a young British boy (Ronald Sinclair) who wants Rooney to ride his horse in an upcoming race, and top-bills Judy Garland as a "Little Miss Fix It" who is at first a thorn in their side but ends up being their biggest champion. Rooney is manipulated by his con-man father into throwing a race which, like in "Down the Stretch", gets him banished as a jockey. Sinclair takes over as jockey on his own horse after his beloved grandfather (the always lovable C. Aubrey Smith) passes away and leaves only the horse to him. Of course, in typical MGM fashion, everything is resolved in the nick of time.People will mainly watch this to see the 15 year old Judy Garland who was rising as a young radio star who had made a couple of films and was yet two years away from film immortality as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz". Judy, of course, has more talent in her little finger than MGM had stars, so she is deserving of being the legend she is today. She especially shines while singing, and her song, "Gotta Pair of New Shoes", is right for her talents, although it appears in the film four times. The best performance of it is when she interrupts Mickey massaging the wounded Sinclair. It is comical to watch Rooney continuously pull down Sinclair's pants every time Judy tries to get into the room. This is an unintentional bit of humor that censors probably didn't catch, as is another scene with Rooney and Sinclair riding the same horse. Judy also is amusing in a scene where she "emotes" for her new pal, Sinclair.As for the wonderful Sophie Tucker, it's great to see her in one of her few screen roles, and she works well with Judy. She has many funny lines, but her character is never fully developed. Her retort to an usher in a private box at the race track is priceless. The first half of the film is comical, while the second half is strictly dramatic. The scene where Judy searches through a crowded city for Rooney just seems absurd, but it's obvious that when Judy has her mind made up, she will accomplish what she has set out to do. Her fans will adore this movie to see her develop her screen style, but as a typical MGM programmer, it is simply passable. Rooney did better acting in "Down the Stretch", but Sinclair is very good. As a screen team, Mickey and Judy really didn't pick up steam until their follow-up picture, "Love Finds Andy Hardy", so this must count as their weakest teaming.

sol1218 (There are Spoilers) Even though the movie "Thoroghbreds Don't Cry" is the first of many films pairing Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland as the most popular and admired teenagers on the silver screen in the late 1930's and 40's. The film instead comes across as being an early buddy-buddy like film about two at first combative then best of friends teenage boys horse-racing jockey Timmie Donovan, Mickey Rooney, and British blue-blood and all around nice kid Roger Calverton, Ronald Sinclair. Judy Garland is more or less overlooked by the two boys and almost everyone else in the cast in the small role as the sweet singing and piano playing Cricket West.The movie itself is a somewhat run of the mill story about a brash young man jockey Timmie Donovan who after he gets into a fight with the very proper and refined Roger Calverton, over his table manors, soon get's to become Rogers best friend. Timmie agrees to ride Roger's prized racehorse The Pookah in the biggest and richest race in California the California Cup. With young Roger's grandfather Sir. Peter Calverton, C. Aubrey Smith, and co-owner of The Pookah going along it's decided by Timmie that the horse needs a tune-up race before the Cup. It's than decided to run him in Ridgemore Handicap which The Pookah is expected to be an odds-on favorite.With both Timmie and The Pookah razor sharp for the Ridgemore the young jockey is summoned to his fathers Click, Charles D. Brown, bedside where he's told by the old man that he's dying from a very serious heart condition. Click gives the concerned Timmie this whole line of horse-sh*t about needing something like $5,000.00 so that he can have an iron-lung that would save his life. Click as well as his doctor "Doc" Godfrey, Henry Koker, tell Timmie that the only way he can get that kind of money is if he'll throw the race that he's to ride The Pookah in.Timmie who's as honest as the day, that's June 22 the beginning of summer, is long at first refuses to give into his dad's desperate plea but being the tender on the inside and tough on the outside guy that he is finally agrees to throw the race just to save his poor and sick father's life. It turns out that there's nothing at all wrong with the old man but that he and his gang of crooked gamblers, including "Doc", are planning to bet heavily against The Pookah and make a killing at the expense of Timmie's career as a professional horse-racing jockey.Not letting The Pookah, who has a terrific closing kick, run in the Ridgemore Timmie loses the race and just after the horse crosses the finish-line finishing out of the money Old Man Calverton,shocked by the Pookah's loss, collapses in his private box of a heart-attack. At the hospital Timmie is told by the head nurse that the old guy didn't make it. Timmie get's so depressed over what he did that he becomes a homeless hobo sleeping on a bench in the park and asking for handouts so he can get himself a bite to eat.The ending is a bit unpredictable since you would think that Timmie in an effort to vindicate himself would ride The Pookah to victory in the California Cup. Instead Timmie is drummed out of his profession as a jockey by admitting to the race track official's, after his lousy and two-timing dad tipped them off, that he threw the previous race that he rode The Pookah in. Timmie in a round about way still does the right thing by getting, or stealing, the $1,000.00 entrance fee from his cheating dad to have The Pookah run in the big race. Since his friend Roger was not only broke but about to sell the horse to non-other then "Doc" who together with Timmie's sleazy father were planning to run the horse into the ground. Making as much money that they can off him until they finally, when The Pookah is an old and broken down nag, sell him to the glue factory.With him being suspended and not able to ride The Pookah Timmie has Roger take the mount and with him giving his friend instructions on what to do in the race, while hiding in a tree overlooking the race-track, Rogers and The Pookah end up winning it in a heart stopping stretch run ending to the movie. 15 year-old Judy Garland who even though had a secondary role in the movie did receive top billing together with stars Mickey Rooney and Ronald Siclair and also sang the movie's title song "Gotta A Pair of New Shoes".

Ron Oliver Left insolvent in America by the death of his grandfather, a young English lad learns that THOROUGHBREDS DON'T CRY. Now it's time for his new buddies, an irrepressible girl & an excitable jockey, to help him make his race horse a winner.This little film, with a horse race plot both contrived & convoluted, is mere entertainment fluff. Its real significance is that it was the first movie to co-star Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland. Rooney is hyper-energetic & Garland exhibits her wide-eyed exuberance; together they hint at much better films to come in the future. Ronald Sinclair receives equal billing with them, and he does a good job with his role, but up against the Dynamic Duo he never really stood a chance. His celebrity would prove to be rather transitory.Forrester Harvey does fine in a small performance as a jolly horse trainer. Wonderful old Sir C. Aubrey Smith lends a touch of class to his role as an English gentleman. But it is the inimitable Sophie Tucker who steals the film as Garland's mother, a big sharp-tongued woman you wouldn't want to trifle with. For some unfathomable reason, the script gives her no chance to sing. Unbelievable! At the very least, a Tucker/Garland duet could have made the film truly memorable.Movie mavens will recognize Lionel Belmore as a butler & Elisha Cook, Jr. as a jockey, both unbilled.A `pookah', by the way, is an Irish ghost horse.