Ken Thomson Movies

In this detective story, a super sleuth is hired by an insurance company to find a stolen emerald belonging to a rich man's daughter. He soon discovers that the theft was a hoax precipitated by the girl's boyfriend, an aspiring novelist doing research for his forthcoming novel. Real trouble ensues when the gem really is taken. Again the detective begins investigating. He soon discovers that the crook is an official at the insurance company. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Amateur detective Peter Cornish (William Gargan) and dimwitted police inspector Killian (Paul Hurst) combine forces to track down a blackmailer. Cornish's interest in the case is more than professional: among those being blackmailed is pretty heiress Joan Rankin (Florence Rice). The case takes on a whole new coloring when the extortionist is murdered, and Joan falls under suspicion. On the other hand, the guilty party could be Nelson the butler (Wyrley Birch), who was being indirectly victimized by the dead man. For the most part, Blackmailer is played for laughs, presumably to keep the Hays Office from complaining that the picture was too morbid. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This satisfying George O'Brien western was released in most markets as Whispering Smith Speaks. O'Brien is "Whispering" Smith, so named because he speaks softly but knows how to fend for himself. The son of a railroad president, Smith is determined to learn the business from the ground up, so he gets a job as a track walker for his dad's rail line. While going about his duties, he meets Nan Roberts (Irene Ware), who is about to sell her Colorado ranch. Smith finds out that there are valuable tungsten deposits on her land and makes certain she won't be cheated by the villains. The rip-roaring finale finds Smith commandeering a locomotive so that he can file his claim in Denver ahead of the bad guys. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Filmed in two weeks at Red Rock Canyon and Lone Pine, California, Hop-Along Cassidy was the opener of one of the best -- and most fondly remembered -- B-Western series of all time. Former silent screen star William Boyd regained his lost fame playing the prematurely gray, black-clad hero of pulp-writer Clarence E. Mulford's Bar 20 stories, with young Paramount contract player James Ellison as handsome sidekick Johnny Nelson and Charles Middleton (in a surprisingly low-key performance) as Cassidy's old friend, Buck Peters. Bill Cassidy arrives at the Bar-20 ranch in the middle of a range war with the neighboring Meeker spread. Old man Meeker (Robert Warwick) has been driving his cattle onto Bar-20 land for water against Buck's wishes. Cattle begin to disappear from both ranches and a couple of Meeker cowboys are shot. Meeker blames the Bar-20 crew but his daughter Mary (Paula Stone), who is in love with Johnny Nelson, believes in their innocence. Looking out for the headstrong Johnny, Cassidy is shot in the leg, thus acquiring his famous nickname of "Hop-Along." Bar-20 oldtimer Uncle Ben (George "Gabby" Hayes) discovers that cattle from both ranches have their brands altered and the two ranches band together to trap a vicious gang of rustlers lead by Meeker's unscrupulous foreman Pecos Jack Anthony (Kenneth Thomson). In the ensuing war, Uncle Ben is killed by Anthony but "Hop-Along" manages to catch the killer, whom he drives off a cliff to his death. With the Dance of the Furies from Gluck's Orfeo et Euridice underscoring the climactic ride, Hop-Along Cassidy proved a fast-paced, well-acted opener to the series. George "Gabby" Hayes, whose contribution to this success was vital, returned in the next entry, The Eagle's Brood (1935), as as a bartender, finally finding his true place in the "Hopalong Cassidy" oeuvre as Windy, Hopalong's grizzled old windbag of a sidekick, in the third film, Bar 20 Rides Again. Producer Sherman left Paramount in 1942 in favor of United Artists where the "Hopalong" series continued to flourish until 1948. Boyd then bought the rights to the films and re-edited them for television. The 1949-1951 Hopalong Cassidy series was so popular that Boyd filmed 52 new half-hour episodes for the 1952-1954 seasons. Hop-Along Cassidy, the initial "Hopalong" feature, is usually shown today under its re-release title, Hopalong Cassidy Enters. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Having recently left Universal Pictures in a huff, mercurial cowboy star Ken Maynard stopped briefly at Mascot Studios for a brace of films. The first was In Old Santa Fe, a modern story set at a dude ranch where Maynard (playing himself) is employed. The villain is dude sharpshooter Chandler (Kenneth Thomson), who makes a play for Maynard's sweetheart Lila Miller (Evelyn Knapp). Before our hero is permitted to triumph, the film makes a side trip to a western nightclub, wherein a couple of radio crooners named Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette make their joint film debuts. Less than a year later, Autry would replace a recalcitrant Ken Maynard in the Mascot serial Phantom Empire -- and the rest, as they say, is history. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Invincible Studios' Cross Streets is something of a watershed film, providing leading roles for fading silent stars Claire Windsor and Kenneth Thomson and relative newcomers Johnny Mack Brown and Anita Louise. The story is the old saw about the brilliant surgeon who disappears from view after a fatal misdiagnosis. Twelve years later, the surgeon, now a shabby hobo, returns home, where he redeems himself by performing a life-saving operation. But there's no happy ending for our hero, who through a convoluted plot twist is shot by the jealous husband of the Doc's prospective mother-in-law! Cross Streets might easily have been titled Crossed Wires, what with its tangled web of complex plotlines. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this family drama, a married couple work in a department store. He is a shipping clerk; she works in the dress department. The husband loses his job when he is framed for a robbery by a sleazy security guard. His unemployment spawns marital discord until the very end when the truth is at last discovered. Happiness then ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A shipwreck strands a newpaperman, his fiancee, and a man falsely accused of murder, on an African island. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

William Powell is a poor East Side lawyer who works his way up the ladder to assistant prosecutor. He isn't too particular how he uses and misuses the law, much to the dismay of his faithful secretary (Joan Blondell). Powell's downfall comes when he falls for a shady lady (Claire Dodd) who blackmails him for a past misdeed. He escapes prosecution with a hung jury, but the experience rekindles his conscience. With his loving secretary at his side, Powell returns to his old neighborhood to set up an honest legal practice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ruth Chatterton tears up the screen in this fast-paced, lusty comedy. Alison Drake is an automobile magnate, a hard-nosed, hardboiled business woman making dozens of important decisions a day. In her private life, however, she is passionate and bold in her pursuit of male companionship, which she frequently finds among the ranks of her own employees and executives; the problem is that these men can't abide the fact that back at work, she's all business again; and she keeps having to get their long, mopey faces out of her presence by transferring them elsewhere. Then she meets Jim Thorne (George Brent), a gifted engineer who is attracted to Drake but isn't a callow, cowtowing yes-man, and isn't awed by her millions. After a few awkward encounters, they find a balance in their lives together, or so she thinks, until he proposes marriage. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this crime drama an escaped killer hunts the man who squealed upon him. He stalks the man onto a train bound for San Francisco. The stoolie is killed. As a result another passenger, who witnessed the killing becomes determined to catch the cold-blooded killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi