Jameson Thomas Movies

Ne'er-do-well Gary Cooper is so desperate for quick cash that he's willing to sell the custody rights of his own daughter (Shirley Temple), whom he's never seen. Cooper's girlfriend Carole Lombard is shocked by this callousness and walks out on him, but when Cooper meets his daughter and has a change of heart, he reclaims the little girl and is reunited with Lombard. Still, Cooper can't hold down a job. Another get-rich-quick scheme ends unhappily when Cooper is forced to participate in a jewel robbery. After fighting it out with his confederates, the wounded Cooper begs the victim of the robbery, a wealthy and loving woman, to adopt his daughter and give her the sort of life he is unable to provide. Now and Forever would have been mighty turgid stuff without the combined star power of Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, and six-year-old Shirley Temple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Of the two 1934 film versions of the life of Russia's Catherine the Great, Josef von Sternberg's The Scarlet Empress was the most opulent and exotic. Marlene Dietrich plays the German-born Catherine, who is required to marry Russia's mad Grand Duke Peter (Sam Jaffe, decked out in a Harpo Marx wig). As if her joke of a marriage isn't torment enough, Catherine must endure the excesses of her new mother-in-law, Empress Elizabeth (Louise Dresser). Eventually, Catherine finds solace -- and romance -- in the form of Count Alexei (John Lodge). But even this balm is denied her when the ambitious Alexei begins wooing the much-older Elizabeth. When the old Empress dies, Catherine ascends to the Russian throne, knowing full well that her addled husband would kill her at the slightest provocation. Soon her power outstrips Peter's, and the opportunistic Alexei now comes back into her life. The finale finds Catherine emerging triumphant over all her enemies -- and, in the film's least subtle sequence (which is saying a lot!), the new Empress is shown astride a horse, to whom she displays far more affection than any of her human compatriots. The Scarlet Empress has even less to do with accuracy than Paul Czinner's Catherine the Great of the same year, which starred Elizabeth Bergner. Watch for Dietrich's real-life daughter Maria Sieber (aka Maria Riva) as the 7-year-old Catherine in the early scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A mysterious stranger, his face swathed in bandages and his eyes obscured by dark spectacles, has taken a room at a cozy inn in the British village of Ipping. Never leaving his quarters, the stranger demands that the staff leave him completely alone. Working unmolested with his test tubes, the stranger does not notice when the landlady inadvertently walks into his room one morning. But she notices that her guest seemingly has no head! The stranger, one Jack Griffin, is a scientist, who'd left Ipping several months earlier while conducting a series of tests with a strange new drug called monocane. He returns to the laboratory of his mentor, Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers), where he reveals his secret to onetime partner Dr. Kemp (William Harrigan) and former fiancee Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart). Monocane is a formula for invisibility, and has rendered Griffin's entire body undetectable to the human eye. Alas, monocane has also had the side effect of driving Griffin insane. With megalomanic glee, Griffin takes Kemp into his confidence, explaining how he plans to prove his superiority over other humans by wreaking as much havoc as possible. At first, his pranks are harmless; then, without batting an eyelash, he turns to murder, beginning with the strangling of a comic-relief constable. When Kemp tries to turn Griffin over to the police, he himself is marked for death. Despite elaborate measures taken by the police, Griffin is able to murder Kemp, considerately taking the time to describe his homicidal methods to his helpless victim. After a reign of terror costing hundreds of lives, Griffin is cornered in a barn, his movements betrayed by his footsteps in the snow. Mortally wounded by police bullets, Griffin is taken to a hospital, where he regretfully tells Flora that he's paying the price for meddling into Things Men Should Not Know. As Griffin dies, his face becomes slowly visible: first the skull, then the nerve endings, then layer upon layer of raw flesh, until he is revealed to be Claude Rains, making his first American film appearance. So forceful was Rains' verbal performance as "The Invisible One" that he became an overnight movie star (after nearly twenty years on stage). Wittily scripted by R.C. Sherriff and an uncredited Philip Wylie, and brilliantly directed by James Whale, The Invisible Man is a near-untoppable combination of horror and humor. Also deserving of unqualified praise are the thorouhgly convincing special effects by John P. Fulton and John Mescall. With the exception of The Invisible Man Returns, none of the sequels came anywhere close to the quality of the 1933 original. Trivia alert: watch for Dwight "Renfield" Frye as a bespectacled reporter, Walter Brennan as the man whose bicycle was stolen, and John Carradine as the fellow in the phone booth who's "gawt a plan to ketch the h'invisible man." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young woman believes that her mother's gambling house is a hotel. When a gambler angry about being cheated there convinces her to join her mother's business, it really does turn into a hotel. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Running a swift 55 minutes, Trial of Vivienne Ware packs in more sheer entertainment value than its longer, more prestigious "role model," The Trial of Mary Dugan. Joan Bennett plays the title character, a beleaguered young woman accused of murdering her nasty fiancee (Jameson Thomas). She is defended in court by hotshot lawyer John Sutherland (Donald Cook), who happens to be in love with her. Subtlety is checked at the door in the ensuing trial, which comes to a climax when the actual murderer tosses a knife at a female witness, just as she is about to make a startling revelation. ZaSu Pitts is hilarious as Miss Fairweather, a lachrymose radio personality who during her daily courtroom broadcasts seems less concerned with the progress of the trial than with Vivienne's wardrobe. Trial of Vivienne Ware was based on a novel by Kenneth M. Ellis, which had been previously adapted as a popular radio serial. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Didn't the beautiful, ubiquitous Sally Blane ever take a day off in 1932? In Escapade, the busy Blane is cast as Kay Whitney, the wife of jailbird Phillip Whitney (Anthony Bushell). Upon his release, Phillip and Kay head to the home of his brother, celebrated lawyer John Whitney (Jameson Thomas) who, incredibly, is unaware that Phillip has "done time." It doesn't take long for Kay and John to fall in love, but this doesn't weaken John's resolve to save Phillip from the wrath of one of his former cellmates, the much-feared Gimpy McLane (Walter Long). Conveniently, Phillip and Gimpy knock each other off during a climactic gun battle, clearing the field for John and Kay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This first of three talkies bearing the title Lover Come Back stars Constance Cummings as Connie, a super-efficient stenographer. Connie would willingly forsake her career if office manager Tom Evans (Jack Mulhall) would propose, but he barely knows she's alive. When Tom marries Vivian (Betty Bronson), the disenchanted Connie weds Tom's boss Yates (Jameson Thomas), a bore and a pest. Things straighten themselves out when Tom finally realizes that Vivian is the wrong girl for him (indeed, she's the wrong girl for anyone). Star Jack Mulhall is afforded the opportunity to sing a forgettable ballad called Cigarette, proving that he was an ideal silent film actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The marriage between Jim and Esther Hamilton (Owen Moore and Dorothy Christy) spirals downhill rapidly when Esther purchases a sable coat for herself. Hoping to live up to her expensive accessory, Esther begins imagining herself a glamorpuss and soon is keeping company with caddish Morrell (Jameson Thomas). Jim brings his wife's galavanting to an abrupt end by committing suicide. All of this is related by the sadder-but-wiser Esther as an object lesson for young Alice Kendall (June Collyer), who out of love for her sweetheart Fred Garlan (Lloyd Hughes) returns the fur coat that she's bought on impulse. The only thing "extravagant" about this pinchpenny Tiffany Studios production is its title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In emulation of such "all-talking, all-singing, all-star" Hollywood extravaganzas as The Show of Shows and Hollywood Revue of 1929, Britain's Elstree Studios served up its own big-budget revue, Elstree Calling, in early 1930. This plotless melange of musical numbers and "Heavens My Husband!" comedy sketches rises or falls on the merits of the individual stars. Among the Elstree contractees taking part herein are Will Fyffe, Tommy Handley, Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, and Lily Morris, together with such British International Pictures "regulars" as Anna May Wong and Gordon Harker. The tenor of the production can be measured by the scene in which the exotically beautiful Ms. Wong participates in a Keystone-style pie-throwing sequence. According to the film's credits, Alfred Hitchcock was responsible for "sketches and other interpolated items," reportedly taking over direction of the film when Adrian Brunuel was fired; other sources adamantly deny that Hitchcock had anything at all to do with the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just before making his talkie directorial debut with Atlantic, director E.A. DuPont dashed off the silent "backstage" drama Piccadilly. By the time the film was released in 1929, talking pictures had taken a firm hold of the British film industry, obliging DuPont to reshoot much of the picture with dialogue. American screen favorites Anna May Wong and Gilda Gray (the girl who popularized the "shimmy dance") head the cast, the former as Shosho, a dishwasher in the London nightclub where the latter, cast as dancer Mabel Greenfield, performs nightly. Jealous of Mabel's dancing partner Victor Smiles (Cyril Ritchard), club owner Wilmot (Jameson Thomas) fires Victor, whereupon business drops off dramatically. In desperation, Wilmot takes Shosho out of the kitchen and puts her on stage, where she scores a big success. Feeling threatened by Shosho, Mabel heads to her rival's apartment with blood in her eye. A shot rings out, Shosho falls dead, and Mabel is accused of murder. But during the trial, it turns out that Shosho was done in by her Chinese sweetheart Jim (Kim Ho Chang). In his first feature film appearance, Charles Laughton performs an outrageous bit as a rowdy night club patron; also seen in a minuscule role is young Ray Milland. The talkie version of Piccadilly wasn't released in the U.S. until 1932. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Pemberton Billing, High Treason is set in The Future -- 1940, to be exact. The Federated Countries of Europe seem poised on the brink of another war, this one sparked by a border dispute between Canada and the United States (!) Dr. Seymour (Humberstone Wright), head of the European Peace League, tries to avert the war, while Seymour's daughter Evelyn (Benita Hume) carries on a romance with Michael Deane (Jameson Thomas), the militaristic head of the Air Force. In the film's incredible denouement, Dr. Seymour is forced to resort to assassination to keep the peace (in other words, "support the anti-war movement or I'll kill you.") If one could find a print of High Treason today, one might be amused by the film's futuristic prognostications, including electric signboards in place of newspapers, private helicopters which can land on residential rooftops with impunity, two-way televisions in every home, and miniskirts on every woman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No relation to the later Federico Fellini picture of the same name, The White Sheik was adapted from King's Mate, a novel by author-explorer Rosita Forbes. Wandering into the Arabian foothills, English girl Rosemary Tregarthen (Lillian Hall-Davis) is kidnapped by the Riffs. She is brought before the tribal leader, the mysterious White Sheik (Jameson Thomas). Though he means her no harm, the Sheik cannot permit Rosemary to leave, lest she reveal the Riffs' hiding place. The villain of the piece, the Sheik's rival Menhebbe (Clifford McLaglen), offers to help her escape -- but at the price of her virtue. Rescued from Menhebbe's grimy clutches by the White Sheik, Rosemary instantly falls in love with her savior, and later proves her devotion by saving his life. This bit of Valentinoesque exotica was the first-ever production from British International Pictures (BIP) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide