Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

MartinHafer The casting in this film is rather unusual. While Freddie Bartholomew was apparently supposed to be in the movie, he was either in a contract dispute or in seclusion until his voice changed (according to Judy Garland)...and the studio tried to find a Bartholomew-like actor to take his place. That is why Ronald Sinclair (a New Zealander) was chosen to appear in this film...one of only a small number of films in which he acted. Interestingly, Sinclair has quite a few Hollywood credits--most of them as an Editor!"Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" is monumental because it is the first pairing of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. They'd go on to make many more films together...and this being the first might explain why Rooney does NOT play a typical sort of part for a Garland-Rooney film. Instead of the usual likable guy, he's a fat-head jockey--one that definitely needs to be taken down a peg or two. As for Garland, she 's a nice girl who likes to find excuses to sing...and so her role is very typical of their later films.When the movie begins, Sir Peter Calverton is preparing to take his prize horse, the Pookah, to America for some big race. No, this IS a horse and it's NOT invisible...despite the name for the creature being the same as Harvey in the famous Jimmy Stewart film! His grandson, Roger (Sinclair) accompanies him and eventually makes friends with Timmie (Rooney) and Cricket (Garland). But alas, things do NOT go swimmingly--and I won't say more because I don't want to spoil the plot. Suffice to say that Timmie and Cricket need to work together to help poor Roger and his horse.Overall, this is a very entertaining film--one that would probably appeal more to kids but still have appeal to all ages. It has all the typical MGM polish and the story well worth seeing. I particularly liked that there wasn't that much singing and no dancing...unlike many of the other Garland- Rooney films. I know some folks like the singing and dancing, but to me it often got in the way of the story...and that's why the story here is stronger than I expected.By the way, there is a hospital scene where Timmie talks to the receptionist. This lady is none other than Marie Blake ('Blossom Rock' from "The Addams Family")....who also played the hospital receptionist in the Dr. Kildaire films (also from MGM).

richspenc Not quite up to snuff with Judy's upcoming films, but she's still very good actress as a young girl living in a boarding house with horse jockeys. The main character in this film is actually Ronald Sinclair's as an English boy who has sailed ship to America with his family and his horse, Pooka. Ronald first sees Mickey at the race tracks and immediately admires him for his excellent racing abilities. He then goes over to the boarding house where Mickey and the other jockies and Judy stay. At first, Mickey and the other jockies really don't like him, ridicule him, and Mickey punches him in the eye. He only ends up trying to straighten out his attitude towards Ronald, with Judy's persuance, due to Ronald's grandfather giving Mickey his prized horse stick. They start to become friends. Ronald really wants Mickey to ride Pooka in his next race. I won't say any more so not to spoil the plot. But there is tragedy in this film, some quirky moments, Judy starts to fall for Ronald. One scene with Judy talking to a negro stable worker may be taken as her talking to him in a rude and racist way, but he is also rude and unhelpful to her right from the start. But she still shouldn't have called him "boy". There is one very embarrassing scene, actually two. A very suggestive vision when Mickey and Ronald are riding the horse together, which I found quite disturbing and not funny. It just didn't fit in with the family style type of film this was. Judy showed some more of her brilliance in this film with her singing "Got a pair of new shoes". That I liked because Judy's great in all of her films with her wonderful acting and singing from the late 1930s all the way through to 1950.

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.

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".