Thomas BeckFilmography

The Family Next Door

Synopsis: Hugh Herbert is the head of The Family Next Door; he's a plumber of modest means and questionable skills. The rest of Herbert's family would love to climb the social ladder and improve their lot, but their dreams are always compromised by papa's ineptitude. In time-honored fashion, Hugh saves the Read More

They Asked for It

Actors: William Lundigan, Joy Hodges, Michael Whalen, Isabel Jewell, Lyle Talbot

Synopsis: In this crime drama, the owner and chief editor of a newspaper gets together with two college pals and begins looking into the strange death of an old hermit who lived on the fringe of town. The official cause of death is alcoholism, but the editor thinks otherwise. Sure enough, the man's daughter Read More

I Stand Accused

Actors: Robert Cummings, Helen Mack, Lyle Talbot, Thomas Beck, Gordon Jones

Synopsis: This drama chronicles the different paths taken by former partners in law. One of them, an avaricious attorney who will stop at nothing to find success, becomes a lawyer for the mob. His dreams are soon realized, but their achievement cost him his marriage, family and partner. Meanwhile his Read More

Road Demon

Actors: Henry Arthur, Joan Valerie, Henry Armetta, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: In this exciting action film, a young Indy driver endeavors to emulate his famous father, and restore his dad's good reputation after he was killed in a racing in an accident caused by ruthless racketeers who made it look as if the veteran driver was drunk. The young son is assisted by trucker and Read More

Walking Down Broadway

Actors: Claire Trevor, Phyllis Brooks, Leah Ray, Dixie Dunbar, Lynn Bari

Synopsis: Not a remake of the 1932 Erich Von Stroheim film of the same name (which was ultimately released as Hello Sister), Walking Down Broadway owes more to the old Warner Bros. melodrama Three on a Match. The story concerns six Broadway chorus girls, who, when their latest show folds on New Years' Eve Read More

Woman-Wise

Actors: Rochelle Hudson, Michael Whalen, Thomas Beck, Alan Dinehart, Douglas Fowley

Synopsis: An earnest, honest newspaper sports editor single-handedly launches a campaign to clean up the shadowy, crooked world of professional prizefighting in this drama. He focuses most of his energy on one shady promoter and proves his point by easily punching out the lights of the promoter's "champ." Read More

The Great Hospital Mystery

Actors: Jane Darwell, Sig Rumann, Sally Blane, Thomas Beck, Joan Davis

Synopsis: The Great Hospital Mystery is based on one of Mignon Eberhardt's "Nurse Sarah Keate" whodunits. Physically and temperamentally, Jane Darwell at least approximates the middle-aged Sarah (here renamed Miss Keats), but otherwise the film runs far afield from Eberhardt's original concept. As the night Read More

Think Fast, Mr. Moto

Actors: Peter Lorre, Virginia Field, Thomas Beck, Sig Rumann, Murray Kinnell

Synopsis: Think Fast, Mr. Moto was the first of 20th Century-Fox's movie series based on the wily Japanese sleuth created by J. P. Marquand. Moto (Peter Lorre) seems to be a criminal this time around, involved with a gang of international smugglers. Virginia Field is a White Russian expatriate who likewise Read More

The Thirteenth Chair

Actors: Dame May Whitty, Madge Evans, Elissa Landi, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: The 1937 Thirteenth Chair was the third film version of the 1919 stage melodrama by Bayard Veiller. Dame Mae Whitty dominates the proceedings as Mme. La Grange, a phony mystic who is on hand when a man is killed during one of her seances. The killing takes place in the home of a provincial British Read More

The Seventh Heaven

Actors: Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Gregory Ratoff, Gale Sondergaard

Synopsis: This romantic tearjerker was the second film based on the popular 1922 stage play. James Stewart stars as Chico, a lowly Paris sewer worker who has abandoned his faith in God and any hope for a brighter future or romance when his prayers go unanswered. Chico meets Diane (Simone Simon), a Read More

Thank You, Mr. Moto

Actors: Peter Lorre, Thomas Beck, Pauline Frederick, Jayne Regan, Sidney Blackmer

Synopsis: The second of eight 1930s films based on J. P. Marquand's Japanese detective, Thank You, Mr. Moto finds Moto (Peter Lorre) coming to the aid of Chinese royalty. The last remaining members of an ancient Chinese clan (Pauline Frederick and Philip Ahn) have in their possession six of seven scrolls Read More

45 Fathers

Actors: Jane Withers, Richard Carle

Synopsis: The 45 Fathers of the title are the elderly members of the Gun and Spear Club, all of whom jointly adopt mischievous orphan girl Judith Frazier (Jane Withers) and her pet monkey. Our heroine wastes no time patching up the various family problems of her new "daddies." Of utmost priority are the Read More

Heidi

Actors: Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur Treacher, Helen Westley, Pauline Moore

Synopsis: Johanna Spyri's perennial children's favorite Heidi was retailored to the talents of Shirley Temple, resulting in one of her best vehicles. Orphaned early in the proceeding, Heidi is left in the care of her bitter, misanthropic grandfather Adolph Kramer (Jean Hersholt). It doesn't take long before Read More

Charlie Chan at the Olympics

Actors: Allan Lane, Warner Oland, Katherine de Mille, Pauline Moore, Keye Luke, C. Henry Gordon

Synopsis: Actual footage of the 1936 Berlin Olympics is rabbeted into the action of this superior Charlie Chan entry. Assigned by the U.S. Navy to track down a gang of international spies, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) heads to Berlin, where as luck would have it his son Lee (Keye Luke) is representing the Read More

The Crack-Up

Actors: Peter Lorre, Brian Donlevy, Helen Wood, Ralph Morgan, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: Test pilot Brian Donlevy works for a major aircraft plant where a hush-hush project is in progress. Peter Lorre is a deceptively shy plant technician who is actually the head of a foreign spy ring. Eager to get his hands on the plans of a new, secret aircraft, Lorre bribes Donlevy to help him Read More

Charlie Chan at the Opera

Actors: Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, Keye Luke, Charlotte Henry, Thomas Beck

Synopsis: "Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff" read the billing on the opening credits of Charlie Chan at the Opera. Karloff plays a once-famous opera star who has long been confined to an insane asylum. He escapes, ostensibly to seek revenge on the diva wife (Nedda Harrigan) who'd betrayed him years earlier. Karloff Read More

Champagne Charlie

Actors: Paul Cavanagh, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Minna Gombell, Herbert Mundin

Synopsis: "Champagne" Charlie Courtland (Paul Cavanaugh) is a smooth, sophisticated and highly unethical gambler, plying his trade among the rich and famous. Charlie's backers hope for a huge financial windfall when he begins to court beautiful young heiress Linda Craig (Helen Wood). At the last moment Read More

Can This Be Dixie?

Actors: Jane Withers, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Sara Haden

Synopsis: This musical satire parodies Southern living as it follows the exploits of a traveling medicine show that ends up on a bankrupt plantation. It is just as well as Doc Gurgle and his daughter have just lost their show. The plantation is run by a Kentucky colonel. Young Miss Gurgle and her pa decide Read More

White Fang

Actors: Michael Whalen, Jean Muir, George "Slim" Summerville, Charles Winninger, John Carradine, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: Based on Jack London's famous story of the same name, White Fang was first filmed in 1925. It is set in the Gold Rush era in Alaska and the Yukon. Sylvia Burgess (Jean Muir) is traveling with her brother Hal (Thomas Beck) to a gold mine that they have inherited from their father. Their guide is Read More

Under Two Flags

Actors: Ronald Colman, Claudette Colbert, Victor McLaglen, Rosalind Russell, Gregory Ratoff

Synopsis: Two silent film versions preceded this 1936 Hollywood adaptation of the 19th century novel by the writer Ouida Bergere. It is set in Saharan Africa but was filmed in the Arizona desert. Ronald Colman is Corporal Victor, a man who has taken the rap for a crime committed by his younger brother. Read More

My Marriage

Actors: Claire Trevor, Kent Taylor, Pauline Frederick, Paul Kelly, Helen Wood

Synopsis: In this crime drama, a girl whose father was murdered by gangsters wants to marry into a rich family. Her fiance's mother hates the idea, but consents to the marriage so that she can break it up later. However, she changes her mind about the whole thing when it is revealed that her other son was Read More

Every Saturday Night

Actors: June Lang, Thomas Beck, Jed Prouty, Spring Byington, Florence Roberts

Synopsis: The cinematic saga of The Jones Family began modestly in 1936 with Every Saturday Night. Jed Prouty and Spring Byington star as Ma and Pa Jones, with June Lang, Kenneth Howell, George Ernest, June Carlson and William Mahan as the five Jones kids and Florence Roberts as feisty Granny Jones. In this Read More

Charlie Chan at the Race Track

Actors: Warner Oland

Synopsis: En route from Honolulu to Los Angeles by steamship, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is pressed into action when a fellow passenger is killed. The dead man was a prominent horse breeder, whose favorite stallion has been entered in the Santa Anita handicap. At first glance, it appears as though the Read More

Life Begins at 40

Actors: Will Rogers, Rochelle Hudson, Richard Cromwell, George Barbier, Jane Darwell

Synopsis: A best-selling nonfictional book of the 1920s provided the title for this Will Rogers vehicle. Rogers plays a small town newspaper editor who prints all the news that fits his own homespun view of the world. Against the wishes of the town higher-ups, Rogers tries to clear the name of Richard Cromwell Read More

Charlie Chan in Egypt

Actors: Warner Oland, Pat Paterson, Thomas Beck, Rita Hayworth, Stepin Fetchit

Synopsis: As much a horror film as a murder mystery, Charlie Chan in Egypt is one of the best entries in the "Chan" series. The story is motivated by a King Tut-like curse, which has apparently befallen the members of an archeological expedition. Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is brought into the case when a Read More

Music is Magic

Actors: Alice Faye, Ray Walker, Bebe Daniels, Frank Mitchell, Jack Durant

Synopsis: Bebe Daniels, all of 34, portrays an ageing movie star who refuses to admit she's too old for the ingenue role in an upcoming musical. Alice Faye is a hopeful chorus girl, while Ray Walker is a would-be director. All the young people get their deserved breaks when Daniels gets wise to herself and Read More

Charlie Chan in Paris

Actors: Warner Oland, Mary Brian, Thomas Beck, Erik Rhodes, John Miljan

Synopsis: The otherwise standard series entry Charlie Chan in Paris is distinguished by the presence of actor Keye Luke, making his first appearance as Charlie Chan's (Warner Oland) "Number One Son" Lee. Summoned to Paris by undercover agent Nardi (Dorothy Appleby), Honolulu detective Chan hopes to get the Read More