Eric Blore Movies

Fancy Pants is a musicalized remake of the oft-filmed Harry Leon Wilson story Ruggles of Red Gap, tailored to the talents of "Mr. Robert Hope (formerly Bob)". The basic plotline of the original, that of an English butler entering the service of a rowdy nouveau-riche family from the American West, is retained. The major difference is that main character (Bob Hope) plays a third-rate American actor who only pretends to be a British gentleman's gentleman. Social-climbing American heiress Lucille Ball hires Hope to impress her high-society English acquaintances, then takes him back to her ranch in New Mexico. Though there are many close shaves, Hope manages to convince the wild and woolly westerners that he's a genuine British Lord--even pulling the wool over the eyes of visiting celebrity Teddy Roosevelt (John Alexander). Never as droll as the 1935 Leo McCarey-directed Ruggles of Red Gap, Fancy Pants nonetheless works quite well on its own broad, slapsticky level. If the ending seems abrupt, it may be because the original finale, in which a fleeing Bob Hope and Lucille Ball were to be rescued by surprise guest star Roy Rogers, was abandoned just before the scene was shot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wind in the Willows was originally released as the second half of the 1949 Disney animated feature Ichabod and Mr. Toad. While the first portion of the film was devoted to a sprightly adaptation of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", the second portion was a cartoonization of one of Kenneth Grahame's whimsical "Toad of Toad Hall" tales. Eric Blore sublimely provides the voice of the aristocratic Mr. Toad, an amiable, childlike sort with a passion for automobiles. Framed on a car-theft charge by a gang of weasels, Toad is shuttled off to prison. He is rescued from durance vile by his faithful chums Mole, Rat and Badger. One of the most popular and enduring of Disney's late-1940s efforts, Wind in the Willows was in constant reissue as a entity separate from Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and was also a frequent visitor to the various Disney TV anthologies of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This cute film is Doris Day's film debut and in it she plays Georgia Garrett, a substitute traveller on an ocean cruise. Her friend Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) had scheduled the cruise but at the last minute cancels when she suspects that her husband is cheating on her and she decides to stay at home to check up on him. So she gets her friend Georgia to go on the cruise in her stead. Meanwhile the husband hires a detective to watch Elvira while on the cruise, because, he too, suspects cheating. Of course, the detective falls for the substitute Elvira (Doris Day), making a somewhat complicated scenario with many possibilities. This is a fun-filled spoof with lots of good tunes by Doris Day. ~ Rovi

Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, ventures into Sherlock Holmes territory in this series entry. When a cache of internationally famous diamonds is stolen, Scotland Yard automatically suspects Lanyard (Gerald Mohr). While trying to prove his innocence, Lanyard is approached by Sir John Helmscott (Vernon Steele), who wants our hero to arrange a sale of Helmscott's gem collection. Lanyard figures out that there's a connection between his new client and the stolen jewels when Helmscott's butler Robards (Tom Stevenson) is murdered. The Lone Wolf in London represents Gerald Mohr's second appearance as Louis Joseph Vance's celebrated criminal-turned-sleuth. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

By 1946, MGM's musical output was in the hands of two men: the incisive, progressive Arthur Freed, and the sentimental, old-fashioned Joe Pasternak. It was Pasternak who held the reins on Two Sisters from Boston, a period piece set in New York. June Allyson and Kathryn Grayson arrive fresh from prim 'n' proper Boston, only to secure work as entertainers in a rowdy Bowery saloon. Since the saloon owner is lovable old Jimmy Durante, the girls have nothing to fear so far as physical outrages are concerned, though they just barely withstand the assault to their eardrums when Schnozzola sings "G'wan Home, Your Mother's Calling." The cultural portion of the program is handled by Metropolitan Opera star Lauritz Melchior, who though in excellent voice isn't as much fun to watch as Durante. The efficacy of Joe Paternak's candy-box approach was proven by the excellent boxoffice response to Two Sisters From Boston. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Three years after its previous "Lone Wolf" entry Passport to Suez, Columbia Pictures revitalized the B-picture series with The Notorious Lone Wolf. Gerald Mohr succeeds Warren William in the role of jewel thief-turned-detective Michael Lanyard, while Eric Blore is back as Lanyard's faithful valet Jamison. Returning from WW2, Lanyard is immediately involved in another baffling case: Several priceless jewels have been stolen from a museum, and you-know-who is the most likely suspect. Racing against time-the theft occured on the eve of his reunion with the gorgeous Carla Winter (Janis Carter)-Lanyard follows the trail of clues to a group of kidnapped foreign dignitaries. The film's highlight finds Lanyard and Jamison disguising themselves as Arab potentates, complete with beards and turbans. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In 1912, John Bunny and Flora Finch starred in the one-reel farce The New Secretary, wherein Bunny's wife hires a homely stenographer to keep her hubby from straying. 33 years later, this old chestnut was reheated for The Men in Her Diary. The cute-as-a-button Peggy Ryan "dresses down" to portray the unattractive secretary--who, unfortunately for her boss, keeps a diary of her imagined love affairs. Everything runs according to expectation in this lively Universal second feature. Men in Her Diary was written by the "odd couple" team of playwright F. Hugh Herbert and Three Stooges gagman Ellwood Ullman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this musical, a talented aspiring costume designer leaves her small town to seek her fortune in the Big Apple. The girl, who is also a singer, soon begins establishing herself in the fashion industry, but when a rival accuses her of stealing a pattern, her career is nearly destroyed. Fortunately, a handsome, romantic hero is around to help her clear her name. Songs include: "Come Along My Heart", "That does It", "Swing Low Sweet Lariat" and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?". ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Though it's not made readily apparent by the title, Passport to Suez was the 10th entry in Columbia's "Lone Wolf" series. Warren William returns as amateur sleuth Michael Lanyard, aka the Lone Wolf, while Eric Blore is his faithful valet Jamison. In this outing, Lanyard finds himself in Alexandria, Egypt, where he works as an unofficial espionage agent for the Allies. Nazi spies threaten to murder Jamison if Lanyard does not agree to steal valuable military documents from the British Embassy. Among the suspicious characters weaving in and out of the proceedings are Johnny Booth (Sheldon Leonard), a "Rick Blaine" style café proprietor, and Valerie King (Ann Savage) a secret agent posing as a journalist. One of the film's cuter script touches is a trio of spies with "artistic" code names: Rembrandt, Cezanne, and The Whistler. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham's account of the life of artist Paul Gauguin, was brought to the screen as a labor of love by writer/director Albert Lewin. George Sanders plays Charles Strickland, a staid London broker who kicks over the traces to become an artist. Strickland pursues his dream to the extent of leaving his family, betraying his friends and associates, and living a life of unending hedonism in Tahiti. An undeniably brilliant painter, Strickland is also a thoroughgoing louse, until he is forced to confront himself on the threshold of death. Herbert Marshall plays the Somerset Maugham character (as he would later in The Razor's Edge), who narrates the story as he attempts to make some sense of Strickland's rakish ways. Director Lewin's obsessive fascination with extraneous exotica -- notably feline statuary and obscure poetry -- is ideally suited to the subject matter of The Moon and Sixpence. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 80-star cast of Forever and a Day would certainly not have been feasible had not most of the actors and production people turned over their salaries to British war relief -- a point driven home during the lengthy opening credits by an unseen narrator. The true star of the film is a stately old manor house in London, built in 1804 by a British admiral (C. Aubrey Smith) and blitzed in 1940 by one Adolf Hitler. Through the portals of this house pass a vast array of Britons, from high-born to low. The earliest scenes involve gay blade Lt. William Trimble (Ray Milland), wronged country-girl Susan (Anna Neagle), and wicked landowner Ambrose Pomfret (Claude Rains). We move on to a comic interlude involving dotty Mr. Simpson (Reginald Owen), eternally drunken butler Bellamy (Charles Laughton), and cockney plumbers Mr. Dabb (Cedric Hardwicke) and Wilkins (Buster Keaton). Maidservant Jenny (Ida Lupino) takes over the plot during the Boer War era, while the World War I sequence finds the house converted into a way-station for soldiers (including Robert Cummings) and anxious families (including Roland Young and Gladys Cooper). Finally we arrive in 1940, with American Gates Pomfret (Kent Smith) and lady-of-the-house Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick) surveying the bombed-out manor, and exulting over the fact that the portrait of the home's founder, Adm. Eustace Trimble (Smith), has remained intact -- symbolic proof of England's durability in its darkest hours. The huge cast includes Dame May Whitty, Edward Everett Horton, Wendy Barrie, Merle Oberon, Nigel Bruce, Richard Haydn, Donald Crisp, and a host of others -- some appearing in sizeable roles, others (like Arthur Treacher and Patric Knowles) willingly accepting one-scene bits, simply to participate in the undertaking. Seven directors and 21 writers were also swept up in the project. Forever and a Day was supposed to have been withdrawn from circulation after the war and its prints destroyed so that no one could profit from what was supposed to have been an act of industry charity. Happily for future generations, prints have survived and are now safely preserved. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A man trying to leave his fame behind discovers the perils of choosing to be the wrong unknown person in this farcical British comedy. Priam Farli (Monty Woolley) is an eccentric but famous and well-respected artist who prefers to work in total seclusion -- so much so that he's spent the last 20 years creating his paintings while living on an isolated island in the Pacific, with only his valet, Henry Leek (Eric Blore), for company. When word reaches Farli that he is to be knighted by King Edward VII (Edwin Maxwell), the artist reluctantly sails back to Great Britain with Leek, but en route, his devoted servant dies. Seeing a perfect opportunity to once again escape the public eye, Farli poses as Leek and claims that the great painter was the one who passed away. Farli is not allowed to attend his own funeral, but things get more complicated when Alice Challice (Gracie Fields) appears with a letter in which Leek proposes marriage to her. Wanting to maintain his cover, Farli goes through with the wedding, only to find that Leek was already married, and his first wife (Una O'Connor) would like some explanations as to why her Henry has taken another wife, not to mention wondering where he's been for the past two decades. Laird Cregar, Alan Mowbray, and Fritz Feld highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi