Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry *** (1937, Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Frankie Darro, C Aubrey Smith) – Movie Review 3618

MGM’s fine young thoroughbreds Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland appear together for the first time in director Alfred E Green’s slight but pleasant 1937 tale with music, as horse-racing Timmie Donovan (Mickey) mixes with crooks and Judy plays Cricket West (!) and gets a chance to trill. The public rightly loved them and it is the first of 10 movies the star duo did together.

Written by Lawrence Hazard, it is still a pleasure with Mickey and Judy a delight; plus co-starring Sophie Tucker as Judy’s mom, C Aubrey Smith as a true Brit called Sir Peter Calverton, Ronald Sinclair as Roger Calverton and a fine cast, with Forrester Harvey, Frankie Darro, Lionel Belmore and Elisha Cook Jr especially worth looking out for.

Songs and music: California Here I Come. Got a Pair of New Shoes, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, The Farmer in the Dell and Rule Britannia.

Also in the cast are Henry Kolker, Helen Troy, Charles D Brown, Ernie Alexander, Harry Woods, Douglas Wood, Pierre Watkin, Oscar O’Shea, Jack Norton, Edgar Norton, Cliff Nazarro, Eddie Shubert, Wilbur Mack, Donald Kerr, Bob Tansill, Eugene Jackson, Robert Homans, Chuck Hamilton, Edward Gargan, James Flavin, Edward Earle, Harry Depp, Edgar Dearing,, Chester Clute, George Chandler, Francis X Bushman, Don Brodie, Marie Blake and Reginald Barlow.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3618
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