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!

Ronald Sinclair 101 - Part 3!

Continuing to dig up additional movies featuring Ronald Sinclair, the child actor who portrayed young Scrooge in MGM's 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," we come across "Boots and Saddles" from Republic Pictures in 1937, the western with Gene Autry referred to in the clipping from last time.

The Autry vehicle features Ronald Sinclair (still billed under his sort-of real name Ra Hould) as a young British earl who inherits the ranch of which Gene is the foreman.

Will Gene transform the lad into a real westerner and save the ranch? Watch the movie and see!

If you like one Autry movie from the 1930s, you probably like them all, but this one stands out for a couple of reasons.

One is the somewhat different story element of the British lad going West.

Future Wild Bill (standing, in yellow shirt) doesn't look too concerned!

Another is that the villain is portrayed by Gordon Elliott, who just the next year would star as Wild Bill Hickock in Columbia's 1938 serial "The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok." That was such a success that he became a major Western star billed as Wild Bill Elliott!

He was a good actor and makes a good villain, with the thin little mustache and all and it's fun to see such a stalwart cowboy star in that manner!

Gene plays his usual version of himself and has his usual sidekick Smiley Burnette as Frog Millhouse with his usual antics.

Judith Allen gives the movie a little zip as Gene's love interest and Guy Usher as Judith's father gives good support as well.

Ronald/Ra isn't given too much to do past the setup of the story, but he does a good job and has some fun scenes with Smiley.

Easy to see why MGM snatched him up when they needed a quick Freddie Bartholomew replacement!

Good fun!

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 3

Now that we've seen Barry MacKay's first movie, let's take a look at another one from a little bit later.

This is the only other American move he made (besides 1938's "A Christmas Carol"): "Smuggled Cargo" from Republic Pictures in 1939!

I had mentioned last time that I don't think Barry MacKay was under contract to MGM, as he was only in that one movie from them. No other movies, no shorts or anything else. I'm guessing he was in Hollywood already and was cast as Fred (which was a great idea by somebody) because they wanted someone British. 

I don't know what circumstances led him to working for Republic the next year, but the difference between MGM and Republic is about as great as possible during the golden age of Hollywood.

I actually love Republic, as they made the best B-westerns and serials, but they were definitely on "poverty row" as they used to say. The top of that heap, perhaps, but still on the heap!

They had better stunts and special effects than any other studio, major or minor, but the movies themselves tended to be formulaic.

They seemed to plug whoever was available into the leading roles as opposed to tailoring vehicles for them.

The exceptions would be Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and John Wayne, but they were big moneymakers and warranted somewhat fancier treatment.

This leadup brings us to "Smuggled Cargo." I think it's a solid programmer and a good way to spend under an hour of your entertainment time budget.

But... there's no particular reason for Barry MacKay to be in this movie. It takes place in California and the rest of the cast seems pretty American. 

As is often the case with such movies, the hero has a father who needs help with some situation and the hero/son jumps in and ultimately saves the day.

Barry's the son, Gerry Clayton, and his father John is played by Ralph Morgan, who's very American!

They look alike, but Frank (left) and Ralph (right) had very different screen personae! 

Ralph was the older brother of Frank Morgan, the better-known and wackier of the two. 

Ralph was usually cast as an authority figure, but he would sometimes be a villain abusing his authority. 

The authority-ness carried over into real-life, as Ralph Morgan helped found the Screen Actors Guild and was its first president!

Gerry has a race car he drives around and his father refers to it as "the car you brought back from England" or something to that effect, which is I guess to explain why Gerry has a British accent!

Gerry also has a wacky mechanic sidekick known as the Professor. He's played by Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards, who's a lot of fun.

Cliff would soon provide the voice of Jiminy Cricket in "Pinocchio" (1940), making his voice familiar to this day.

He even gets to sing a little song at the end of "Smuggled Cargo" as the Gerry and his love interest get the final clinch. 

Said love interest is provided by Rochelle Hudson, who is very lovely but doesn't have a lot to do. 

She was also probably wondering how she wound up at Republic after a reasonably promising start to her career!

Not to get too far off-topic (too late?), but it's worth noting that Rochelle Hudson later popped up as Natalie Wood's character's mother in the 1956 classic "Rebel Without a Cause." She's opposite William Hopper as her husband. Both actors had been knocking around since the 1930s and were about the same age, but Rochelle's glory days were far behind, yet William Hopper would finally find his greatest fame the next year when he began co-starring on the "Perry Mason" TV series. Such are the capricious ways of show biz!

Just to bring things back around a bit, James Dean's father in "Rebel" is played by Jim Backus who played a certain nearsighted cartoon character who starred in a certain TV special...

Anyway, so, how does Barry MacKay fare in a movie like "Smuggled Cargo" that he just seems to have been plopped into?

The answer is that he's just fine. The demands of such roles are to sell the material with some personality and presence and he does that!

I think he could have continued in such roles if he wanted to. A lot of the leading men that Republic used at times brought a lot less to the table.

I don't know what he thought of the whole movie thing, but after "Smuggled Cargo" he did not appear in another movie until the 1952 British production of "The Pickwick Papers."

Did he just not really like making movies? Does anyone still around know the answer?

The movie is *not* this lurid!