Tom Ricketts Movies
It's possible that British actor Tom Ricketts was never young. From his first screen appearance in 1919 to his last in 1938, Ricketts was the embodiment of decrepit old age; so convincing were his characterizations that one could almost hear his joints creaking. Frequently on call for costume roles, he was seen as Tellson Jr. in Tale of Two Cities (1935) and Giles Corey in Maid of Salem (1937). For the most part, however, Tom Ricketts was cast as ancient, rheumatic family butlers; in both Broadway Bill (1934) and After the Thin Man (1936), his doddering invitation "Walk this way, please" brought out the basest comedy impulses of Warren William and William Powell, respectively. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1921
Fancy Charlie (Tom Moore) breaks into an apartment, but finds a cabinet full of burglar tools. This is a clear indication that he is robbing one of his own, and he is caught by the apartment's owner (DeWitt C. Jennings). The owner admits to his profession, but allows Charlie to leave if he will take a thousand dollars with him and prove himself to be an honest citizen in a small town -- that way, the whole town can be fleeced at a later date. Charlie agrees, but once he gets there he decides to go straight for real. He returns a wallet full of money to Jules Fanchette (Tom Ricketts), who is the keeper of the "Clean Air Fund," and becomes a partner in his store. He falls in love with Nellie Brown (Hazel Daly) and becomes one of the town's most popular residents. Ultimately he is nominated for mayor. Then the man who sent him to the town in the first place shows up. He threatens to expose Charlie, but he bravely tells him to go right ahead. Then the truth comes out: Charlie's associate is not a crook at all, but G.B. Lawson, a U.S. senator who plays around with criminology on the side. Lawson had been using Charlie as part of an experiment, and now that he has proven to be an honest man, he backs him in his new political endeavors. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Moore, Hazel Daly, (more)
- 1921
Cinema veteran Benjamin B. Hampton produced this fanciful silent western starring his wife Claire Adams as a girl forced to marry the man she suspects killed her father. When she refuses, she is virtually kept a prisoner along with kid-brother Frankie Lee until a handsome stranger (Jack Conway) rescues them. Played more as a romantic melodrama than a rough-and-tumble western adventure, The Killer benefited from a thoroughly believable turn by character actor Frank Campeau as the villain. Leading man Conway later enjoyed a long, fruitful career as a house director at MGM. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claire Adams, Jack Conway, (more)
- 1922
The character played by star Gladys Walton mentions lavender bath salts a couple of times -- that's about the only relation the title has to the plot of this routine comedy-drama. Walton is Mayme Conroy, whose job is to model gowns in a department store window. She causes a sensation that draws the attention of rich society girl Jeanette Gregor (Charlotte Pierce). Jeanette convinces her Uncle Simon (Tom Ricketts) to allow Mayme to live with them at their mansion. Now that she is living the high life she has always dreamed of, Mayme goes one step further and pretends to be her hostess while Jeanette is away. Under this pretense, she meets and falls in love with David Bruce, a blind young man (Edward Burns). But she begins to suspect that he is a jewel thief and goes out of her way to protect her friend's belongings. Bruce, however, is really a detective, and he thinks Mayme is the thief. Her innocence -- and his -- is finally discovered and romance ensues. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1924
Reginald Denny seems to be doing a Harold Lloyd impersonation in this comedy, right down to the glasses, and maybe he was -- the plot concerns a hypochondriac, like Lloyd's 1923 hit Why Worry?. Although Rufus Billop (Denny) is convinced he will die at any minute, he has outlived his whole family with the exception of his Aunt Beulah (Lucille Ward). While visiting her he decides he desperately needs a doctor. After fighting against the tough manipulations of a towering woman chiropractor (Blanche Payson), he finds a " real" doctor (Clarence Geldert) who agrees that he needs serious care. The only thing holding Billop back from entering a sanitarium is a lack of funds -- he will inherit 750,000 dollars in three years, but if he dies any earlier all the money goes to charity. After the doctor assures a trio of lenders (Otis Harlan, William V. Mong, and Tom Ricketts) that there's really nothing wrong with Billop, they front him a hundred thousand if they will wind up with his whole fortune. So Billop happily takes on a full time nurse and lays in bed all day with a book and a thermometer. But when the first nurse, "Death Watch Mary" (Martha Mattox), doesn't work out, he is given pretty Dolores Hicks (a young and inexperienced Mary Astor). Billop falls in love with her, and when the maid (Helen Lynch) informs him that women like men who "aren't afraid of nothin'," he stops languishing in bed and starts racing cars and riding motorcycles. His brushes with death almost kill his lenders, who will lose their investment if he dies before he receives his inheritance. Dolores finally gets a lawyer to make out a fair contract, and she convinces the three men to sign it as they helplessly watch Billop painting a flagpole some 20 or so stories above a busy street. Although Denny's performance may owe something to Lloyd, this picture was actually based on the novel by Harry Leon Wilson. In addition a successful play about a hypochondriac, The Nervous Wreck, ran on Broadway in 1924, and it later became the musical Whoopee!, a stage and screen hit for Eddie Cantor -- clearly hypochondriacs were marketable entertainment at the time! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reginald Denny, Mary Astor, (more)
- 1924
Mae Murray's pictures were the ultimate in jazz-era extravagance. This one is based on the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, the same author who wrote the book on which The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was based. Cecilie Brunner (Murray) was raised in a convent, but after her mother's death, she becomes a cynical vamp, who, like the mythical character Circe, brings men to their ruin. Because of the generosity of her unfortunate men friends, Cecilie is able to live well on Long Island. But then she falls in love with her next-door neighbor, Peter Van Martyn, a surgeon (James Kirkwood). Van Martyn disapproves of Cecilie's lifestyle and lets her know it. When he refuses to have anything to do with her, Cecilie parties even harder and winds up gambling away her home. Finally she realizes that Van Martyn was right and she returns to the convent. She is hit by a car and paralyzed while saving a child, but she miraculously regains the use of her legs when Van Martyn comes to her. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae Murray, James Kirkwood, (more)
- 1924
When Madame Zatianny appears, seemingly from nowhere on the social scene, everyone is taken by her beauty. The older ones say she is the mirror image of Mary Ogden, who they had known 30 years before. Lee Clavering, a budding playwright (Conway Tearle), manages to meet Madame Zatianny and they fall very much in love. He proposes, and she confesses to be the same Mary Ogden of 30 years prior, her youth restored through a gland operation. But Prince Hohenhauer, an old admirer (Alan Hale), convinces her to leave Clavering by pointing out that she prefers power over love. So she returns to Europe to continue her relief work, while Clavering consoles himself with Janet Oglethorpe, a pretty young flapper (Clara Bow). Future superstar Bow really stood out in this supporting role -- she received great notices all around -- and not long after the film's release she would become a WAMPAS Baby Star, which helped promote her fledgling career. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Corinne Griffith
- 1925
This mystery was based on a novel written by 20 popular authors, each of whom contributed a chapter. The point of each chapter was to put the characters in such a tight predicament that the next writer would have to be exceptionally clever to get them out of it. As can be imagined, the film that resulted from the book was fast-paced and had almost constant action. Connemara Moore (Marie Prevost) has two suitors, one who likes bobbed hair and the other who doesn't. Both have proposed and she promises to reveal which one she has accepted by either bobbing her hair or not bobbing. In reality, she can't decide between them, so she accepts a ride with a stranger, David Lacy (Kenneth Harlan, at the time Prevost's real-life husband). The ride leads her to all sorts of adventures involving bootleggers, a fight on a private yacht, an attack by hijackers, and other tense situations. Connemara is rescued by Lacy, who turns out to be a government agent, and when she shows up with only half her hair bobbed, it's an indication that she has chosen him as her husband-to-be. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Prevost, Kenneth Harlan, (more)
- 1925
Nell Bailey (Jacqueline Logan) is nothing if not practical. When Danny Kester (Creighton Hale) proposes marriage, she agrees only on the condition that he turn over half his salary, as her "wifely wages." But after the wedding, Danny refuses to honor the agreement, whereupon Nell goes on strike. Her mother and sister join the picket line, and soon every woman in town has rebelled against the male establishment. The fun really begins when Danny and his fellow husbands try to cook and clean on their own, failing spectacularly. This remarkably contemporary comedy was based on a popular stage play, Chicken Feed, by Guy Bolton and Winchell Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Logan, Creighton Hale, (more)
- 1925
This early directorial effort by William Wellman focuses on two married couples: Violet and Henry Gilbert (Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley) and Violet's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Belcher (Tom Ricketts, Ethel Wales). The Gilberts are newlyweds, while the Belchers have been spliced for years. When Mr. Belcher wanders away from his nest in the company of blonde vamp Charlotte (Maude Wayne), Violet begins to suspect that her own husband will follow suit -- and when she finds Henry's briefcase in Maude's roadster, she's sure of it. Actually, Henry has been trying to persuade his father-in-law to give up Charlotte, but try telling that to the easily excitable Violet. Originally released in January of 1926 by Harry Cohn's C.B.C. Pictures, When Husbands Flirt was reissued in July by C.B.C's successor, the fledgling Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Forrest Stanley, Maude Wayne, (more)
- 1925
This muddled murder mystery-comedy was based on the Max Marcin stage play The Night Cap. Bank president Robert Andrews (James Kirkwood) has loaned someone money out of the bank funds and he wants to distract the bank examiner from examining the books and discovering the shortage. So he invites him, and the directors, over to his house. All sorts of intrigue happens at the gathering -- Andrews argues with Jerry Hammond (Tom Ricketts), who is in love with his ward, Anne Maynard (Madge Bellamy). Lester Knoles (Arthur Stuart Hull), meanwhile, is jealous of Andrews' friendship with his wife (Rosemary Theby). In addition, we discover that Andrews has a life insurance policy that will cover the shortage should he die. Not too surprisingly, after some strange goings-on, Andrews is found dead in Mrs. Knoles' room. The police investigate and everybody seems to have a motive to kill Andrews. A lot of confusion ensues, until it is discovered that Andrews isn't really dead after all, and the man who he loaned the money shows up and straightens things out. It's also revealed that the bank examiner has given up his job in favor of selling real estate. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Kirkwood, ZaSu Pitts, (more)
- 1925
As their 25th anniversary approaches, Stuart Borden (Huntley Gordon) and his wife (Irene Rich) are not exactly happily married. In addition to the boredom they feel, there is also the issue of their grown son, Stuart Jr. (John Harron). Young Stuart is in love with Betty Allen (Constance Bennett), a gold digger who is only interested in him as long as he spends lavish amounts of money on her. His father becomes so outraged at the amounts of money he is going through that he cuts him off. As a result, Betty dumps Stuart and a little while later, she meets Borden and entices him. Soon they are having an affair, which is discovered by Mrs. Borden. The Borden's anniversary is on the same day as Betty's birthday and she's mad that Borden won't just drop everything to be with her. Mrs. Borden finally admits that she knows about the affair, and her husband decides to go to Europe. He goes to Betty to tell her good-bye, but his son is already on his way there with a gun to shoot whoever his rival is. Mrs. Borden follows and stops her son from shooting his father. Borden begs his wife's forgiveness and the couple reconcile. It's surprising to note that this domestic drama was adapted from a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Rich, Huntly Gordon, (more)
- 1925
Legend has it that Dorothy Revier rose to stardom in the Columbia Pictures product of the 1920s because she was the "good friend" of Columbia head man Harry Cohn; some sources suggest that Revier was also the model for the studio's famous torch-lady trademark. In Fate of the Flirt, the actress is cast as Mary Burgess, who declares in front of a sophisticated British society crowd that she'd sooner marry a poor bricklayer than a wealthy nobleman. Smitten by the unpretentious Mary, the aristocratic Sir Gilbert (Forrest Stanley) decides to win her heart by posing as his family's chauffeur. It's all part of a wager between Sir Gilbert and his Uncle John (Thomas Ricketts), who is convinced that Mary is merely a title-chasing golddigger. Most of the laughs in Fate of a Flirt are predicated on the amorous activities of Uncle John, living proof that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Revier, Forrest Stanley, (more)
- 1925
The title to this picture came from a Rudyard Kipling poem, and accurately reflected the attitude of Victorian and post-Victorian white people toward cultures different from their own -- they didn't understand them, and there's an underlying sense of superiority. Obviously, that attitude was still very much alive in 1925 (and, truthfully, carried on in one subtle form or another throughout the rest of the 20th century). This South Seas tale, however, had little to do with Kipling -- it was actually based on a story written by a less classic author by the name of Peter B. Kyne. Tamea (Anita Stewart) is the daughter of Gaston Larrieau, a French sea captain (Lionel Belmore), and the queen of a small South Sea island. Father and daughter travel to San Francisco, but he discovers he has leprosy and commits suicide. Tamea is left in the care of Larrieau's young employer, Dan Pritchard (Bert Lytell). Since she is not accustomed to civilized ways, her behavior becomes a problem and Pritchard's ex-fiancée Maisie (Justine Johnstone) and friend Mark Mellenger (Huntley Gordon) both help straighten her out. Tamea returns to her island and Pritchard, who has fallen in love with her, follows. They marry in a native ceremony, but soon Pritchard finds he is bored by island life. Tamea writes to Maisie, admitting that she and her new husband are from two different worlds. Maisie and Mellenger show up on the island, and Pritchard is more than happy to dump his native wife and return to the U.S. with his former flame. Mellenger, however, stays behind and proves to be a better mate to Tamea. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell, (more)
- 1925
Athletic star William Fairbanks stars in this cheaply made Columbia drama. Jim Davis (Fairbanks) likes having a good time, and his extravagance is a strain on his father (Tom Ricketts). To discourage him, the elder Davis claims to be bankrupt, which means that Jim has to fend for himself. When Jim sees a man on the street insulting pretty Mary Corbett (Phyllis Haver), he angrily pummels him. It turns out the man was Battling Wilson (Leon Beauman), who is the state boxing champ. With Mary's encouragement, Jim decides to challenge Wilson in the ring. Before the fight, however, Jim is doped, and as a result, Wilson easily knocks him out. Jim still gets his revenge when he trails the boxer to his dressing room and beats him to a pulp. Jim's heroics win Mary's love, and he and his father are eventually reconciled. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1926
Herman J. Mankiewicz was one of the screenwriters of the sprightly Bebe Daniels vehicle Stranded in Paris. Daniels is cast as New York salesgirl Julie McFadden, who wins a free trip to Paris, sponsored by a French perfume company. En route to Europe by boat, Julie enjoys a shipboard romance with wealthy Robert Van Wye (Robert Ames). Upon arrival in Paris, our heroine discovers to her horror that the perfume company has been closed down, whereupon her purse and luggage are stolen by thieves. With nary a penny to her name, Julie takes a job in a fancy modiste. She is sent to Deauville to deliver a shipment of clothes, but through a series of misunderstandings she finds herself in an entirely different town, where through an additional series of misunderstandings she is forced to pose as one Countess Paseda. Things look bad for Julie when the real Countess shows up, assumes that our heroine has been fooling around with her husband the Count, and prepares to shoot everyone in sight. At the last possible moment, Julie is rescued by her shipboard sweetheart Robert Van Wye, making one wonder why she doesn't greet his entrance with a harsh "Where the heck have you been for the past six reels?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bebe Daniels, James Hall, (more)
- 1926
To impress his wealthy uncle Hiram (Tom Ricketts), Billy Winthrop (George K. Arthur) and his wife Ethel (Dorothy Revier) overextend their bank account and rent a posh apartment. Knowing full well that he will inherit Uncle's fortune provided he has become a success in life, Billy puts on quite a show for the old man's benefit, even unto posing as his own butler -- and maid. While dressed in female drag, Billy falls into the clutches of a gang of crooks, one of whom, Joe Carter (Harry Depp), is likewise disguised in women's clothing. Uncle Hiram flirts outrageously with both "ladies," leading to the film's uproarious conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George K. Arthur, Dorothy Revier, (more)
- 1926
Love's Blindness was another bit of hothouse exotica from romance novelist and self-appointed social arbiter Madame Elinor Glyn. This is the story of Jewish maiden Vanessa Levy (Pauline Starke), the daughter of a somewhat disreputable moneylender (Sam De Grasse). Deeply in debt to Vanessa's father, British nobleman Hubert Culverdale (Antonio Moreno) agrees to marry the girl to square his account. Culverdale lets Vanessa know from the outset that she's not "his kind," and that any sort of romance between them is quite out of the question. Eventually, however, the snobbish hero is won over by the heroine's sincerity and devotion. It says something about Elinor Glyn's salability in 1926 that, reportedly, her bungalow at MGM was larger than the one occupied by Love's Blindness star Pauline Starke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pauline Starke, Antonio Moreno, (more)
- 1926
Ladies at Play was based on Loose Ankles, a stage comedy by Sam Janney. Heroine Ann Harper is thrilled to discover that she has inherited six million dollars. She is less than thrilled when she finds out that, in order to collect her fortune, she must be married within three days. After looking for love in all the wrong places, she finally settles down with the one man who couldn't care less about her millions. Additional laughs are provided by Louise Fazenda and Ethel Wales as Ann's cluck-clucking aunts -- and by older-than-dirt Tom Ricketts as a dyspeptic deacon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Kenyon, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1926
One of the unfortunately "lost" films of silent-screen ingenue Betty Bronson, The Cat's Pajamas casts Bronson as a naïve seamstress. Egotistical opera star Ricardo Cortez, tired of being besieged by his doting female fans, marries Bronson so that he'll be safe from his public. Naturally, it's strictly a business arrangement-or so Cortez thinks. But Bronson has every intention of being a bride in fact as well as name. The Cat's Pajamas represents one of the earliest feature-length directorial efforts of William A. Wellman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Bronson, Ricardo Cortez, (more)
- 1926
Don Marquis' bucolic stage comedy-drama The Old Soak was first brought to the screen in 1926. Jean Hersholt plays the title character, Clem Hawley Sr., the town drunk in a small rural community. When his beloved son Clemmy (George Lewis) is falsely accused of a crime, Clem Sr. nobly takes the blame. Eventually he clears himself, but not before exposing the hypocrisy of several of the town's "leading citizens." Though The Old Soak veered towards sentimentality, actor Jean Hersholt and director Edward H. Sloman kept the bathos firmly under control. The property was remade in 1936 as the Wallace Beery vehicle Good Old Soak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, George Lewis, (more)
- 1927
Gold-digging Broadway chorus girl Marguerite de la Motte sets her sights on every wealthy bachelor within a 100-mile radius. She changes her tactics when the newspapers announce a search for the heir to a $250,000 fortune. Posing as the long-missing heiress, De la Motte manages to pull off the masquerade, only to discover that one of the conditions of the will requires her to spend one year as a resident in a tiny one-horse town. During her enforced stay, the heroine decides to reform her high-kickin' ways when she falls in love with local boy Donald Keith, but the villain of the piece shows up at an inopportune moment, threatening to expose the girl as a fraud unless he gets a chunk of the money. All turns out OK when it develops that Keith, rather than De La Motte, is the actual heir. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marguerite de la Motte, Louis Payne, (more)
- 1927
This routine drama, produced by F.B.O., was based on a story by Laura Jean Libbey. Although they'd both been in pictures for a number of years, this was the first relatively large production for both Charlotte Stevens and Kornelius Keefe. When Ed (Grant Withers) pulls off a heist stealing from wealthy Alice Gage (Marie Walcamp), his sweetheart Polly (Stevens) is jailed for the crime. While she cools her heels behind bars, Polly swears revenge, and when she gets out, she attempts to rob Alice's home. She is found by Alice's father (Tom Ricketts), however, and he decides to adopt her. Alice's fiancé, Martin Breen (Keefe), falls in love with Polly. Alice isn't exactly willing to let Breen go and she does everything in her power to put a wedge between the two lovers. But nothing works, and in the end, Polly gets her man -- so she really does steal something from Alice, after all. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlotte Stevens, Grant Withers, (more)
- 1927
It would seem that Warner Bros. was trying to develop hoydenish Louise Fazenda and diminutive Clyde Cook into a screen team, which would explain the existence of such trifles as A Sailor's Sweetheart. Upon inheriting a fortune, old-maid schoolmarm Cynthia Botts (Fazenda) takes a trip to Hawaii in search of a handsome hubby. She ends up the bride of Mark Krisel (John Miljan), who turns out to be not only a fortune-hunter but a bigamist as well. Standing on the sidelines is woebegone sailor MacTavish (Clyde Cook), who, unaware of Cynthia's millions, worships her from afar. Cynthia realizes that MacTavish is the man for her when he rescues her from a vicious bootlegging gang. Myrna Loy has virtually nothing to do in the third-billed role of Claudette Ralston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Fazenda, Clyde Cook, (more)
- 1927
Kitty Flanders (Yvonne Pelletier), Jean Waddington and Ted Larrabee (Don Marion) are all "children of divorce" -- the two girls are left in a convent school by their mothers and Ted's upbringing is sketchy at best. When the three of them grow up, Ted (now played by Gary Cooper) falls deeply in love with Jean (the beautiful Esther Ralston). Kitty (Clara Bow) loves Vico, an impoverished prince (Einar Hansen), but she refuses to marry him because her mother, Katherine (Hedda Hopper), has drilled into her the necessity of marrying for money. So Kitty sets her sights on the wealthy Ted, even though Jean is her friend. After a night of drunken revelry, Ted wakes up to find he and Kitty are married. Even though he is desperately unhappy, Jean doesn't want their parents' mistake repeated and refuses to allow him to seek a divorce so that he can marry her. A few years later, things have gotten much worse for Kitty and Ted. Although they have a baby, it does nothing for the marriage and Ted does everything he can to avoid his unwanted wife. Then Kitty finds out that, for religious reasons, Vico can never marry a divorced woman. Since she can see no other way out, she poisons herself so that Ted and Jean can be together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Bow, Esther Ralston, (more)
