Ronald Sinclair 101 - Part 4!

Back to Ronald Sinclair in his per-MGM days while stilled billed as Ra Hould, we come across his one starring picture for Republic, 1937's "Dangerous Holiday."

Said dangerous holiday is taken by Ronald's character, who is a violin prodigy (named Ronnie!) with a bunch of greedy relatives!

The movie follows his relatively mild adventures on the road before he reunites with his reformed family.

The movie isn't really much, but Ronald/Ra is has a very likeable presence which carries the film and he does acquire an awesome dog, whom he names Hercules!

I see a few references here and there to Ronald being a violin prodigy in real life, hence this vehicle for him, but that article from the "Times Colonist" says he was an able pianist with no mention of the violin. I presume if he had been a prodigy, that article would've said so.

Guinn "Big Boy" Williams gives good support as a genial gangster who befriends Ronnie.

And it's always interesting to see Hedda Hopper as an actress (she plays Ronnie's stepmother here) before she became an influential (and evil!) gossip columnist known for wearing wacky hats!

As with "Boots and Saddles," you can see why MGM grabbed him as last-minute Freddie Bartholomew replacement for "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry."

I guess he was disposable to MGM once the settled things with Freddie, as Ronald only appeared in the one additional film for MGM (the previously mentioned "A Christmas Carol")

By the same token, MGM didn't seem to know what to do with the growing Freddie either!

That's show biz!