Thornton Freeland Movies

Radio personality Levis manages to stop a Buddhist art connoisseur from collecting a rare artifact in this comic thriller. ~ All Movie Guide

Radio personality Levis manages to stop a Buddhist art connoisseur from collecting a rare artifact in this comic thriller. ~ All Movie Guide

One wonders if the title Too Many Blondes was inspired by the well-publicized romantic peccadilloes of the film's star, Rudy Vallee. The plot centers on a husband-wife radio team, Dick (Vallee) and Virginia (Helen Parrish). When Dick is caught in an innocent but compromising situation with brassy blonde showgirl Hortense (Iris Adrian), Virginia is encouraged to inaugurate divorce proceedings by her oily ex-beau Ted (Jerome Cowan). It all winds up in Mexico, with Dick ardently chasing Virginia until she catches him. This being a Universal B-picture, it goes without saying that Shemp Howard shows up as comedy relief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy is based on George M. Cohan's popular play and centers on an American businessman and his family who journey to England to meet a prominent English lord. It is an important meeting complicated by the fact that neither men care for each other's nationality. Unfortunately, their children have no such bias and they end up falling in love, forcing the two men to reconcile their differences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When a woman gets money from her guardian, Lupino, to finance her newspaper she accused him of embezzling. Luckily for all involved, everything is straightened out and Lupino marries his secretary while the ward marries Lupino's friend. ~ All Movie Guide

British musical-comedy star Jack Hulbert and Hollywood ingenue Patricia Ellis share top billing in Gaiety Girls (aka Paradise for Two). Hulbert plays Martin, a straight-laced Parisian millionaire who falls in love with saucy chorus girl Jeannette (Ellis). The plot requires that Martin pose as a reporter who is called upon by Jeannette to pose as her wealthy benefactor: in other words, he's hired to impersonate himself! With all this going on, it's a wonder that our hero has time to offer a few song-and-dance numbers of his own, but Jack Hulbert does not disappoint his fans. Billed fourth in Gaiety Girls is Googie Withers, whose name would mean a lot more at the box-office within a few short years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accused is a British melodrama starring American actor (and confirmed Anglophile) Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Somewhat incongruously cast as an Apache dancer, Fairbanks and his dance partner/wife Dolores Del Rio headline a Paris musical. Fairbanks becomes the unwilling target for the attentions of performer Florence Desmond (the famed British impressionist, here playing a hateful adventuress). Desmond is later murdered with the dagger used by Fairbanks and his wife in their act, and Dolores is accused of the crime. A florid court trial unmasks the real killer. Zoe Akins, a prominent playwright of the 1920s whose once-celebrated works seem somewhat childish today, was one of the scenarists of Accused. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brewster's Millions was the fourth film version (and first talkie adaptation) of the war-horse Winchell Smith/Byron Ongley play. This being a British film, it's only logical that popular British musical comedy star Jack Buchanan should portray hero Jack Brewster. Once more, Brewster will inherit his uncle's huge estate only if he's able to spend one million pounds within two months. Our hero invests in several "lost cause" stocks and businesses, only to suffer as each one of his investments makes money. A last-act surprise enables Brewster to come out on top--and to claim as his bride the lovely Nancy O'Neil, who would love him even if he were broke. Brewster's Millions would be remade three more times over the next five decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The top-billed stars in the extravagant RKO musical Flying Down to Rio are Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. Forget all that: this is the movie that first teamed Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. We're supposed to care about the romantic triangle between aviator/bandleader Raymond, Brazilian heiress Del Rio and her wealthy fiance Raul Roulien, but the moment Fred and Ginger dance to a minute's worth of "The Carioca", the film is theirs forever. Other musical highlights include Rogers' opening piece "Music Makes Me" and tenor Roulien's lush rendition of "Orchids in the Moonlight". Then there's the title number. The plot has it that Del Rio' uncle has been prohibited from having a floor show at his lavish hotel because of a Rio city ordinance. Astaire and Raymond save the day by staging the climactic "Flying Down to Rio" number thousands of feet in the air, with hundreds of chorus girls shimmying and swaying while strapped to the wings of a fleet of airplanes. It is one of the most outrageously brilliant numbers in movie musical history, and one that never fails to incite a big round of applause from the audience--even audiences of the 1990s. Together with King Kong, Flying Down to Rio saved the fledgling RKO Radio studios from bankruptcy in 1933. The film was a smash everywhere it played, encouraging the studio to concoct future teamings of those two stalwart supporting players Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a story by Ursula Parrott, this romantic drama from Columbia Pictures was one of Humphrey Bogart's first leading roles. Working-class pilot and mechanic Jim Leonard (Bogart) gives flying lessons to wealthy heiress Carol Owen (Dorothy Mackaill).They fall in love throughout the teaching process, but marriage seems impossible due to their differing social standings. Jim develops an airplane motor that could help him make some money, but he needs the upfront cash to finance it. Carol would be glad to help, but it turns out that she really had no money after all. She finds out that her father died broke and she has been supported by her financial advisor, Bruce Hardy (Hale Hamilton), who also wants to marry her. The conclusion involves a daring rescue and stunt flying sequence. Running just over an hour long, Love Affair was originally distributed in 1932 as a double-bill feature. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, a hard-working husband loses his job and his wife becomes the bread winner. The husband feels demeaned by his new role and takes a mistress to regain his lost manhood. The chastened wife eventually returns to the daily drudgery of home so her hubby can feel important and manly again. Marital bliss ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rita La Roy has good reasons to hate her philandering husband, Hooper Atchley, in this low-budget but sumptuous-looking art deco mystery directed by comedy specialist Thornton Freeland. The cool and calculated Miss La Roy isn't the only person with a grudge against the nasty Atchley, however; in fact, quite a few people come under suspicion when the philanderer is found dying from a bullet wound in his penthouse apartment. Just before he expires, Atchley manages to gasp, "Casey," referring perhaps to Arthur Jones (William Collier Jr.), whose sister (June Clyde) was one of the evil man's latest victims. In the middle of the investigation, the murder scene is plunged into darkness, a shot is fired, and when the electricity returns, yet another victim is found, with the late Mr. Atchley's pet monkey -- the secret witness -- clutching a still smoking gun. Police Captain McGowan (Purnell Pratt) is at first dumbfounded, but with the help of dizzy neighbor Una Merkel, the identity of the murderer is finally revealed. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide