Hold That Blonde
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
George Marshall
Eddie Bracken
Veronica Lake
Albert Dekker
Frank Fenton
George Zucco
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Kind-hearted pickpocket Ogden Spencer Trulow III, whose grandfather founded the New York Security and Trust Bank, repeatedly steals from the bank during unconscious lapses that begin with a twitching ear, but always dutifully returns what he has stolen. Psychoanalyst Pavel Sorasky diagnoses him as a kleptomaniac and tells him that, as he has only been stealing since his fiancée left him, finding a girl friend is his only cure. Soon Ogden bumps into a strange woman on the street; his ear twitches uncontrollably and he steals her compact, which contains the combination to a safe. Later, the woman holds him up at gunpoint in his apartment and demands the compact, but is interrupted by police detective Callahan, who has been tailing her. The woman's name is Sally Martin, and when she pretends to be married to Ogden in order to avoid Callahan, Ogden decides that she is the woman who will cure him. Tired of always having to return what Odgen steals, his valet, Willie Shelley, rips out a newspaper picture of the priceless Romanoff necklace, which will be displayed the upcoming weekend by Henry Carteret during a party at his Long Island home. Sally sees the picture and assumes Ogden aims to steal the necklace. She has been ordered by her boss, Phillips, to steal the necklace during the party by posing as the Carteret maid. After numerous unsuccessful attempts by Phillips' henchmen, Victor and Slash, to kidnap and kill Ogden to keep him from interfering, the pickpocket gets himself into the party in order to keep Sally from stealing the jewels by stealing them himself. Sally, meanwhile, confesses that she has never stolen anything in her life, but is being forced to steal by Phillips, who is holding evidence against her. At the party, Ogden performs a magic trick in which he switches Sally's imitation Romanoff necklace with the real one and then smashes Sally's, causing her to have him thrown out of the party. When Ogden is held up by Slash, however, Sally helps him escape, then knocks him out for his own good. Carteret, it turns out, hired Phillips to steal the necklace for insurance fraud. After the party guests have left, Sally occupies the insurance detectives who have come to guard the necklace so that Phillips can steal it. Willie and Ogden enter the house first, however, and when Victor and Slash unlock the safe, Ogden grabs the safe jewel box in the dark. Sally tells him to get rid of it because she loves him, and he returns it to Carteret. Callahan arrests Carteret but allows the lovers to go, stating that there is nothing wrong with either of them that a marriage ceremony will not cure. They kiss, and Sally's ear twitches.
Director
George Marshall
Cast
Eddie Bracken
Veronica Lake
Albert Dekker
Frank Fenton
George Zucco
Donald Macbride
Lewis L. Russell
Norma Varden
Ralph Peters
Robert Watson
Lyle Latell
Edmund Macdonald
Willie Best
Jack Norton
Lee Shumway
Robert Middlemass
Edward Fielding
Arthur Nelson
Norman Ainsley
Jack Clifford
George Lloyd
William Frambes
James Flavin
Tommie Hawkins
Jody Gilbert
Fredric Santley
Shimen Ruskin
Crane Whitley
Mary Currier
Kenneth Hunter
Mira Mckinney
Olaf Hytten
Boyd Davis
Grayce Hampton
Jim Toney
Kernan Cripps
Eddie Laughton
Jayne Hazard
Ralph Dunn
Harry Hays Morgan
Mary Berry
Crew
Earl Baldwin
Haskell Boggs
Walter Deleon
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Daniel L. Fapp
Loyal Griggs
Edith Head
Werner Heymann
Devereux Jennings
Gordon Jennings
Don Johnson
Paul Jones
Paul Lerpae
Gene Merritt
E. Edwin Moran
Ray Moyer
Leroy Stone
Walter Tyler
Wally Westmore
Philip G. Wisdom
Joseph Youngerman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title for this film was Good Intentions. The Opening narration is accompanied by shots of the New York skyline at night, the front of a suburban mansion, and inside it, "Sally Martin" peeking out from behind a curtain. In the film, after falling in love with Sally, "Ogden" writes new lyrics to the 1944 hit song "Swinging on a Star" from Going My Way. Due to a press error, the Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter reviews erroneously credit actor Victor Moore with music, although Werner Heymann is credited on the screen. Paul Armstrong's play was also the basis of the 1925 Paramount film Paths to Paradise, directed by Clarence Badger and starring Betty Compson and Raymond Griffith (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.4171).
