Okay, I am thinking that Mickey Rooney could not possibly grow up to be Clark Gable! I realize that he was a big star and he is great and all that, but no physical resemblance to Gable at all! So this makes me laugh every time I have seen this movie!
shareYeah...at least they could have given the kid a little moustache!!
shareActually Mickey Rooney was very young here, a year ahead of being in 'Midsummer's Night Dream' (Shakespeare) and was only a kid. Truth is that when he got older (even into his service in the military during WW2), he could do a pretty good Clark Gable impersonation.
Cary Grant once said that Mickey Rooney was one of the greatest actors our country had and if he could play "Young Tom Edison" (while in the sequel, the grown up version was played by Spencer Tracy), why not Clark Gable?
Gable was also on the rise at this point of his career. 5 years until "Gone With the Wind".
Even of those that grow moustaches, not many preteens have them.
Now if it was say John Wayne or James Stewart (someone real tall), I'd say it might be a stretch. But nobody knew back in 1934 that Mickey Rooney would STAY short as he wasn't even at the point guys normally get their growth spurt.
That far back in films, there weren't many child actors (much less stars). In fact, some families (like the Watson one - Bobs Watson was with Rooney in 'Boys Town' as Pee Wee for those that have seen it), got into films simply because they had a lot of kids in the family and they lived right next to the studio lot!
Resemblance? Anyone see "The Kid" (a Disney film)? Did the 'kid' have any resemblance to Bruce Willis? Not really. I suppose the only real way to have 'realistic younger versions' of actors is to use the children of the actors themselves (such as Will Smith's son, etc.).
Actually seeing this film finally explained to me why in a later Rooney film when he did a Gable impersonation he said 'Gable always talked like Blacky'...I didn't understand that line until I say this film where they both played Blacky. :)
It IS who you are that defines you, not JUST what you do.
Let's not forget, that Mickey Rooney would also have been one of the highest decorated soldiers in WWII, but he refused the medals, because his celebrity status would annoy the other grunts.
I'm not sure what he did exactly, but it was something like tossing hand grenades into a couple of tanks and a machine gun nest. Watch some of his movies, you will see he has that kind of manic energy.
I love Mickey Rooney. He was the best childhood and teenage actor that this country has produced up to this point. He was drafted when he came of age and the War Department wisely put him in the equivalent of the USO or Troops Services Battalion. He was never a combat soldier.
He earned the usual enlisted decorations for service during the war, plus a Bronze Star for his entertainment services in a war zone. (A soldier must be in a war zone and thereby at risk to the enemy to earn a Bronze Star) However, I think that it did not have a "V" device. The "V" device is added if the act for which the award is made includes the soldier deliberately risking injury in order to execute it.
The claim that you make about Mr. Rooney's military accomplishments is entirely unsupported by any documentation. You need to mark the source for your information and ensure that you discount any other information from that source accordingly.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.
I think you are getting The Mickster confused with Audie Murphy.
Murphy, who did not start out as a child star in Hollywood (actually far from it - his family were sharecroppers in Texas), was the most decorated soldier in WWII.
It was he who received the Medal of Honor for holding off a group of advancing German tanks and infantry, mostly by himself!
You can read his Citation here:
http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=421
Audie Murphy was indeed an exceptional soldier and a great American.
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I've always thought they should have reversed the kids. The other kid looked more like Gable and Rooney looked more like a young Powell.
shareI think I read somewhere there was a reason the kids didn't look like the adult actors - maybe it was different casting in mind for the adult actors at the time they shot the kids? I can't remember, but Mickey Rooney was a terrific actor his entire life. I think his talent was always appreciated by fellow actors more than the media. He was burdened by being short, not leading man looking, and SUCH a showman. He was a musical theatre guy as well as an actor, and sometimes musical theatre types aren't taken seriously. But he was wonderful.
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