William H. Thompson Movies

This epic production was the last film that producer and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst produced for Paramount (after that, his production company, Cosmopolitan, went over to Goldwyn, which later merged with MGM). It was based on a novel by Vicenti Blasco Ibanez, who also wrote The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In addition to lavish sets by Joseph Urban, the cast and crew also filmed on-location in Paris and Monte Carlo. Russian Prince Lubimoff (Lionel Barrymore) thinks only of his wealth and his own gratification. After fighting a duel, he has to flee from the ire of the Czar, and Duchess Alicia (Alma Rubens) helps him to get out of the country. While he is staying at his villa in Monte Carlo, World War I breaks out, but neither he nor his associates even consider going to fight. Lubimoff, who won't even acknowledge that he is in love with Alicia, is incensed when he finds her embracing a young man. Without realizing that it is her 16-year-old son, Lubimoff and his friends form a group called "Enemies of Women." Because of the war, the feudal estates are lost, and Alicia's son dies just before he is about to enter into a duel. Lubimoff, who has finally realized that the world does not revolve around him, goes to fight and uses the money he has left to help the downtrodden. On the front lines, he meets Alicia, who has become a Red Cross nurse, and they are united. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Undergrads Lou Ellen Carter (June Caprice) and George Budd (Creighton Hale) are in love, but June's parents (W.H. Thompson and Grace Reals) and George's guardian, Aunt Penelope (Flora Finch) don't approve of the union. The couple decide to get married in secret, and just as they are wed George receives a telegram from his aunt telling him that he will be disinherited if he does anything rash. So the two part temporarily, but it doesn't take long for things to change. Pretty little actress Jackie Sampson (Zena Keefe) has gotten June's father drunk and stolen his Prohibition speech; meanwhile, Aunt Penelope (another Prohibitionist) winds up at the college clubhouse where the "tea" there gets her smashed. Jackie, after finding out George and June's dilemma, tells Carter he will have his speech back only if he agrees that June can marry George. And George gets his aunt's consent by offering to keep her drunken performance a secret. Once this is done, June and George reveal they have already been married. This frivolous story was better on stage when it was musical comedy by P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton (Jerome Kerr, incidentally, wrote the score). ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Billie Burke, the wonderfully giddy Broadway star and the wife of impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, made her film debut in the tailor-made vehicle Peggy. The heroine, Peggy Cameron, is a high-society debutante with a mind of her own. After making a public spectacle of herself once too often, Peggy is bundled off to Scotland, where she is to be looked after by her no-nonsense uncle Andrew Cameron (William H. Thompson). If Peggy's family had hoped that she would straighten up and behave herself in Scotland, they were sorely mistaken. Fortunately, her rambunctious behavior soon makes her the most beloved girl in the village, and also wins her the love of sober-sided Reverend Donald Bruce (William Desmond). Popular juvenile lead Charles Ray is here atypically cast as Peggy's doltish Scottish cousin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scroogelike William H. Thompson thinks nothing of exploiting and persecuting those financially beholden to him. Thompson's son Charles Ray is as purehearted and generous as his dad is mean-spirited and greedy. When Ray is shabbily treated by Thompson once too often, he becomes a dope addict. At long last, Thompson is awakened to his deficincies as a father and as a human being. The fine hand of scenarist C. Gardner Sullivan is more than evident in The Dividend's purple-prosed subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide