Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Eleanore Griffin (story) and
J. Walter Ruben (story) ...

Release Date:

3 December 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Musical

Plot:

Cricket West is a hopeful actress with a plan and a pair of vocal chords that bring down the house. Along with her eccentric aunt...

Plot Keywords:

Jockey | Horse | English | Heart Attack | Farce

Cast

Ronald Sinclair	...	Roger Calverton
Judy Garland	...	Cricket West
Mickey Rooney	...	Timmie 'Tim' Donovan
C. Aubrey Smith	...	Sir Peter Calverton
Sophie Tucker	...	Mother 'Aunt Edie' Ralph
Forrester Harvey	...	Mr. Wilkins, the Trainer
Charles D. Brown	...	'Click' Donovan
Frankie Darro	...	'Dink' Reid
Henry Kolker	...	'Doc' Godfrey
Helen Troy	...	Hilda, Mother Ralph's Maid

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #3824)

Filming Locations:

Santa Anita Park - 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This film, the first of 10 to feature both Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, is also the only one in which she is billed ahead of him.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final race Frankie Darro is wearing no. 4 in the starting gate. Later in a close up he is wearing no. 7. Then at the finish he is again wearing no. 4.

Quotes:

Jim, Racetrack Usher: Listen here, lady, I'm the usher!
Mother 'Aunt Edie' Ralph: Well go on and ush!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Sports on the Silver Screen (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean

Mickey & Judy Start Their Long Date

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.