Compagnons d'infortune (1938) Online

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

"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.

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.

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.

Stablemates offers Margaret Hamilton a meaty role costarring with Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney. The film, about a horse that needs doctoring, and a vet (Beery) that needs help, is routine. However, the way the horse and veterinary medicine is discussed and shown is quite superb.

The story is bolstered by heartfelt performances. Wallace Beery is not to be missed in an operation scene where his character craves one more sip of liquor. In fact, Beery (a real-life alcoholic) gives one of the most intelligent and most compassionate portrayals of his entire career. Despite the darker shades of his character, the movie falls perfectly in line with MGM's family films, given its ultimately redemptive ending.

O.K., so the future Wicked Witch of the West isn't quite a leading lady, but how often is she billed fourth in a movie, under all men? In this case, she has a major supporting role, possibly with even more screen time than her roles in "The Wizard of Oz". The two stars getting the bulk of the screen time are Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney, playing a drunken former veterinarian and his jockey pal who is fired after the horse he rides loses. Rooney offers to forgo his owed back salary in exchange for the horse (set to be killed), and begs Beery, now a janitor at the racetrack, to fix the horse's leg. It becomes very touching to watch Beery strive to stay sober while operating on the lame horse and for Rooney to assist him with great love for the horse he hopes to ride at Bellmont. When their barely running car and horse trailer are swept out to sea, they seek shelter in Margaret Hamilton's barn, and after being confronted by the five time widow with shotgun, they begin doing chores for her. Rooney takes off for Bellmont to register the horse where he learns that Beery is wanted for the accidental death of a jockey whose horse he had operated on, while Beery finds himself entangled further with the widow who wants to make him husband number six.

If you disregard the personal histories of both Beery and Rooney, you will find yourself engrossed in this comical drama of a young teen boy's love for his horse as well as his adoption of Beery as his pop, and ultimately concerned for their outcome. The comedy comes naturally here with several ironic references to the not yet made "Wizard of Oz" (Hamilton asking if the horse is lame, as well as the presence of another character named Gale), plus the presence of veteran character actress Marjorie Gateson as the gracious horse owner who becomes a surprise benefactor for Rooney at Bellmont. (Hamilton played the maid to Gateson years later on the soap opera "The Secret Storm", although they share no scenes here.) Hamilton proves her comic genius without saying a word as she ogles Beery in the singing party sequence, and can deliver a self-deprecating line with knowing delight. ("I look the same...wet or dry....") The ending might require a few handkerchiefs because no matter how gruff he was rumored to be offscreen, onscreen Beery comes off as an old softie, and nobody could pass tears in an emotional farewell better than Rooney in his heyday.

Director: SAM WOOD. Story: William Thiele, Reginald Owen. Screenplay: Leonard Praskins, Richard Maibaum. Camera: John Seitz. Editor: W. Dan Hayes. Music: Edward Ward. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Urie McCleary. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Song, "That's How I Need You", by Joe Goodwin. Sound: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Harry Rapf. Assistant director: Al Shenberg.

Copyright 3 October 1938 by Loew's Inc. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. New York opening at the Capitol, 20 October 1938. U.S. release: 7 October 1938. Australian release: 20 April 1939. 9 reels. 89 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Disgraced vet saves youngster's horse.

NOTES: Academy Award, Mickey Rooney, best male juvenile of 1938.

COMMENT: Whether singing "When You Wore a Tulip" and "That's How I Need You", whether acting plain mean or surly or just being his usual slobbering tough-nut, Wallace Beery is undoubtedly the mainstay of this re-working of "The Champ".

His co-star this time is Mickey Rooney, a lad who is rather over- inclined to seize the hokey script with both hands and tearfully eject its contrived dialogue for rather more than it is worth. Beery knows exactly when to stop squeezing. Master Rooney does not!

The rest of the players have rather small parts, although Margaret Hamilton distinguishes her role as a frosty-turned-romantic farmer, and Sam McDaniel provides an amusing cameo as a rhyming bookie.

A pity the scriptwriters didn't work in a few more colorful characters like these into the proceedings, although we liked Arthur Hohl's "keep punching" owner even if he is as familiar a figure as the central plot itself.

Despite its clichés, Beery does make the movie's plot entertaining — and even moving.

Seitz's grainy photography matches the stock shots and contributes atmosphere. Wood's direction is occasionally super-deft, as in the Beery at the sing-song sequence, but he is also inclined to be too emphatic and heavy-handed. Other credits are accomplished.

OTHER VIEWS: This poorly directed, sentimental tear-jerker of a melodrama has one or two entertaining sequences (Beery in a sing- song), but as a whole, it is dull and predictable. Seitz's sepia photography has a certain down-at-heels, "flat" atmosphere though we suspect it was mainly employed to disguise the many stock shots and surprising over-use of the process screen. In fact, rarely have we seen such obvious process screen effects used so extensively in what is supposed to be an "A" feature. - JHR writing as George Addison.

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.