Lotus Thompson Movies
A blond leading lady of Universal two-reel Westerns of the 1920s, Australian-born Lotus Thompson played mainly second leads in Grade-A productions. She starred opposite Reed Howes in the early sound serial Terry of the Times (1930) before joining the ranks of Hollywood extras. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1949
One of the more palatable of Hollywood's anti-communist tracts of the late 1940s-early 1950s was MGM's The Red Danube. Janet Leigh plays Maria Buhlen, an Eastern Bloc ballerina who seeks political asylum in the British-occupied zone of Vienna. Maria's plight turns into a political tug-of-war involving a British colonel (Walter Pidgeon) and a Soviet colonel (Louis Calhern). Their ideological hagglings spill over into spiritualism, as represented by Mother Superior Ethel Barrymore, and romance, as personified by Maria's ardent suitor Major John McPhimister (Peter Lawford). Like earlier anti-Red cinematic exercises, The Red Danube failed to connect at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, (more)
- 1938
In her only Warner Bros. starring film, Carole Lombard plays a Hollywood movie actress who makes the park-bench acquaintance of an impoverished French marquis (Fernand Gravet). Hoping to coerce Carole into marriage, the nobleman poses as a butler and enters her household. His plan is to compromise Lombard and force her to make him an "honest man"--with the attendant cash settlement. Ralph Bellamy, as ever, is the poor clod who really loves Lombard but who loses her in the end to the chastened Gravet. Rodgers and Hart were commissioned to write several songs for this film, but found most of their efforts consigned to the cutting room floor. Fools for Scandal was based on Nancy Hamilton's stage play Return Engagement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carole Lombard, Fernand Gravey, (more)
- 1935
Kay Francis stars as Stella Parish, a London stage favorite who suddenly disappears without a trace. British news correspondent Keith Lockridge (Ian Hunter) girdles the globe in search of Stella, who has left her beloved daughter Gloria (Sybil Jason) in the care of an aunt (Jessie Ralph). Finally locating his quarry, Lockridge learns that Stella dropped from view to hide the fact that she once served a jail sentence as an accessory to murder. He promises to kill the story for Gloria's sake, but his dispatch is inadvertently published away, forcing Stella into a tawdry career as a "freak" stage attraction (not unlike Evelyn Nesbit Shaw). After hitting rock-bottom in a burlesque show, Stella is rescued by her old director Stephan Norman (Paul Lukas), who invites her to revive the show she was starring in at the time of her disappearance. Little does she know that this comeback has been arranged by Lockridge, who hopes to atone for betraying her trust. All roads lead to a tear-stained reunion between Stella and her daughter, a denouement as inevitable as death and taxes. For years, it was believed that Errol Flynn played an unbilled bit in I Found Stella Parish, but a researcher in the late 1960s discovered that the Flynn look-alike was actually Francis X. Bushman Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, (more)
- 1930
The second of Cecil B. DeMille's talkies (as well as his second for MGM), Madam Satan is an exercise in incoherence, but this doesn't detract one iota from its entertainment value. Kay Johnson plays the sedate wife of philandering Reginald Denny, who is currently carrying on with "jazz baby" Lillian Roth. In a desperate effort to win back her husband, Johnson disguises herself as the alluring, provocatively clothed "Madame Satan." In this guise, she attends a lavish charity costume party being thrown by socialite Roland Young on a dirigible moored high above New York Harbor. Failing to recognize his mousey little wife, Denny arranges for a rendezvous with Madame Satan. When she reveals her true identity, Denny is outraged and threatens divorce. Suddenly, the dirigible is struck by lightning; it breaks loose from its moorings, tossing its terrified passengers around and about. Denny behaves heroically in shepherding the passengers into their parachutes; meanwhile, Johnson gives up her own parachute to save Roth. Coming to the mutual realization that each is worthy of the other's love, Johnson and Denny are reunited. Though when taken out of context, the dirigible sequence appears to be the ultimate in campy melodrama, this scene and all the scenes that built up to it are played for laughs: DeMille didn't take this farrago any more seriously in 1930 than we do today. Highlights include several unexpected and charmingly innapropriate musical numbers, including a bizarre "Ballet Mechanique" featuring dancer Theodore Kosloff. Though DeMille carefully threw in every ingredient that he hoped would appeal to a mass audience, Madam Satan was one of his few box office flops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1929
FBO's popular boy rider Buzz Barton attempts to save the townspeople whose water supply is held hostage by a villain (Tom Lingham). Along with sidekick Milburn Morante, little Buzz manages to drive the villain into the desert where he, in danger of dying from thirst, willingly agrees to charge a fair price for his water. The Barton westerns were directed by Louis King, the less-talented but prolific brother of Henry King. Like Henry, Louis worked well into the 1950s, albeit in much lesser circumstances. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Milburn Morante, Tom Lingham, (more)
- 1929
It's the Hatfields and the McCoys out West again in this commonplace silent western from poverty-row company Syndicate. The strapping Tom Tyler and Australian-born Lotus Thompson star as Romeo and Juliet of the sagebrush, teaming up despite their feuding families in order to defeat the murderous Phantom Rider (played with his usual aplomb by inveterate Bad Guy Harry Woods). When the old, declining FBO scrapped its western unit at the dawn of sound and merged into the newly established RKO, the company's roster of cowboy stars, including Tyler, moved over to veteran director J.P. McGowan's Syndicate Film Exchange, a company that maintained a production of silent westerns longer than perhaps anyone else. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Tyler, J.P. McGowan, (more)
- 1928
Universal's also-ran cowboy hero Ted Wells starred in this routine silent western directed by genre specialist Ray Taylor. Wells played "Six Gun" Phil Lang, a stalwart cowboy who comes to the aid of a beleaguered old miner (Buck Connors). The oldtimer is having problems with a gang of claim jumpers headed by the sly-looking Wilbur Mack, but Six Gun has the law -- and pretty Lotus Thompson -- on his side. The studio issued potboilers like this as so much sausage, but the Wells unit ranked below those of Hoot Gibson and Fred Humes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Wells, Lotus Thompson, (more)
- 1927
Directed by Ernst Laemmle, a nephew of the studio's diminutive owner, this typical Universal oater starred Fred Humes and newcomer Fay Wray. Humes plays a rancher whose homestead is threatened by the evil machinations of crooked neighbor Stephen Laban (Norbert Myles). When snobbish Millicent Delacey (Lotus Thompson) arrives from the East, Humes attempts to impress her by masquerading as the Duke of Black Butte, a visiting nobleman. Millicent and her social climbing mother (Julia Griffith) buy the disguise hook, line, and sinker, but the idyll is interrupted by Laban and his henchmen, who frames Humes in a bank robbery. With the help of local girl Robyna Roberts (Wray), the hero manages to catch the real culprits and clear his good name. No longer threatened by foreclosure, Humes can settle down peacefully, not with the Eastern snob, but married to Robyna. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Humes, Harry Todd, (more)
- 1927
Because of its heavy reliance on slapstick (a no-no for features in the late '20s), this picture, very loosely based on the Ernest Thayer poem, got mixed reviews. But with comedians like Wallace Beery, Ford Sterling, ZaSu Pitts, and Sterling Holloway in the cast, it's a surprise that anyone wouldn't expect slapstick! Casey (Beery) is a junk dealer whose helper is the 13-year-old Spec (the very freckled Spec O'Donnell). He's in love with Camille, who runs a millinery stop (Pitts), but he is taken away from the small town where he lives when he is signed up by the New York Giants. Casey seems to be more interested in beer drinking than he is in playing baseball, so he is introduced to Trixie, a Floradora girl (Iris Stuart), in the hopes that this will distract him from the brew. Casey's rival for Camille attempts to get him drunk so he will miss the Big Game. Spec shows up in time to get him up to bat. Unfortunately, Casey strikes out and all his friends and fans leave him -- except for Spec. And when he arrives home, Casey finds that Camille is waiting for him. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wallace Beery, Ford Sterling, (more)
- 1927
German-born William Wyler began his long, eventful directorial career helming Fred Gilman Western 2-reelers at Universal. Graduating to feature Westerns, Wyler directed both Fred Humes and Ted Wells. Desert Dust was the second of three Wells Westerns for Wyler, a breezy oater about a reform-school kid who must prove his real worth in order to win the heart a state senator's lovely daughter (Lotus Thompson). Wyler considered it a move upwards when he left the Wells unit in favor of Fred Humes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Wells, Lotus Thompson, (more)
- 1926
As reward for saving a girl (Lotus Thompson) from quicksand, Fred Humes gets a job on her ranch. One problem, though: he is afraid of horses due to some childhood trauma. Because of that unwelcome phobia, Humes had been fired by haughty rancher Claude Payton. Payton owns the water rights in the valley and is trying to force Thompson's father (Buck Connors) off his land. Motivated by revenge and a newfound love for the girl he saved, Humes conquers his fears and wins the Big Race to save the day. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Humes, Lotus Thompson, (more)
- 1925
William Fairbanks (no relation to Douglas) stars in this low-budget prizefight melodrama. An aspiring boxer, blacksmith Bob Nichols (Fairbanks) gets his big chance when local champ Knockout Riley (Frank S. Hagney) injures his hand just before a big bout. Nichols takes Knockout's place in the ring, where he finds that his opponent is definitely no pushover. It looks bad for our hero, but with luck and perseverance -- not to mention some sidelines encouragement from his sweetheart Polly (Edith Roberts) -- he emerges triumphant. The film's biggest selling angle is the prizefight finale, expertly staged by actionmeister B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Fairbanks, Edith Roberts, (more)
