The Golden Fleecing (1940)
"Boy oh boy! What a man!"
Hello everyone! Today I have an exciting little movie to share with you: The Golden Fleecing from 1940 starring Lew Ayres and Rita Johnson. For this review, I’m going to be playing with the format a bit, so do let me know your thoughts on this style or whether you like my previous one better! However, as always, spoilers ahead!
The Golden Fleecing (1940) is a B-movie from MGM directed by actor and director Leslie Fenton. The film stars Lew Ayres as the meek insurance salesman Henry Twinkle (a fabulous name that does get a chuckle out of me whenever they say it). He has just sold a $50,000 policy to a gangster Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan). It’s never really made clear as to what Fender’s plan is with signing the insurance policy other than to protect his fiancé, Lila Hanley (Virginia Grey), in case anything happens to him, however, he conveniently disappears mere hours later, wanted dead or alive with a $25,000 reward. That does not bode well for Henry who has to find Fender. With the help of Lila, he meets Fender who is hiding in a small town jail and the two essentially come up with a plan that Henry will “find” Fender and give him the reward. Henry still wants compensation so as not to confuse Mary, his fiancé (Rita Johnson) who is his boss’ secretary, so they give him stock worth nothing. Thanks to the war, the stock suddenly jumps in price and the gangsters want the stock back after Henry has already gone on a shopping spree. The $25,000 reward, which Henry naively gave to one of the goons, has been stolen, so Fender needs the money from the stocks. Mary causes an injunction for breach of promise to marry after Henry explains everything, so Henry now can’t get the money to Fender, who wants to use the money to get himself out of jail and escape across the border. Mary is kidnapped, Henry saves her, she explains that the injunction was done to protect the money, Henry says he just wants to get married, and the two return the money from the stocks to Fender and Lila, with the money quickly going up in flames due to Fatso’s (Nat Pendleton) bad habit of throwing down lit matches. Phew!
The movie is short, silly, and fun, sitting at a crisp 68 minute runtime. The plot is relatively simple, with a few twists and turns throughout, that really shines through the acting on behalf of the cast. We have to start off with Mr. Lew Ayres himself, whose hair is fabulously fluffy in this movie and I am completely obsessed with. Ayres is best known for his dramatic performances in films like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and the Dr. Kildare series. My favorite performance of his, that I could honestly gush about for ages, is as Ned in Holiday (1938), Katharine Hepburn’s alcoholic trapped brother. More recent reviews of The Golden Fleecing complain that Ayres is miscast and “too old” for the role (he would have 31 years old making this film, hardly old at all). While Ayres perhaps doesn’t seem all too comfortable in the role at times, this nervous energy works out perfectly for the character of Henry Twinkle who is consistently being pushed around, emotionally by the people in his life such as Fender, but also physically, such as in the opening scene when Henry struggles to cross the street and gets pushed back, which happens in the elevator moments later.
Henry is “honest and dumb,” always fiddling with his hat or the buttons on his coat. His character goes along with what he’s told to do, only fighting back when Mary is involved or brought up. He also, surprisingly, packs a mean punch from teaching boxing to the older business boys at the gym. Ayres manages to carefully stride the balance between a nebbish businessman and a righteous boyfriend in a way that I found to be very effective, especially on the second viewing, where I knew what to expect. At times, the performance can seem a bit hammy and disingenuous, however, that does not take away from the overall strength of the performance, with Ayres delivering perfect facial expressions and ultimately being the guy who just wants to be “left alone” after being “scared to death” in dangerous situations. His character is very much a prototype for Norville Barnes as played by Tim Robbins in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), secretly smart, seemingly dumb, and innately sincere.
I want to talk about Rita Johnson as Mary and Virginia Grey as Lila together, as they both play the strong foil to their cartoonish lovers. The two women are essentially the heart of the film with their devotion to their men the glue that holds the film together and keeps it from being an over-the-top farce with no message. One of my favorite lines in the film from Mary is to Henry, saying “either you’re enough of a man to want me or not,” which does a great job of summing up their characters. The men in their lives, Henry and Fender, are either too meek and pathetic or hot headed and unable to think clearly. The women have control over the men, steadying them in times of crisis and defending them from bad actors and overreactions. Johnson and Grey convey this as they constantly put themselves between or in front of the men and acting as the dominant woman in a screwball without going over-the-top themselves or being incredibly horny. It was a refreshing look at a screwball, having the women being the level-headed ones who must rein their men in.
The rest of the cast delivers fun performances from the wacky, xylophone-playing Uncle Waldo played by Leon Errol who has written the song “March, March, March (The Boys are Tramping)” (“Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (The Boys are Marching)” was stolen from him) to the perfect comedic gangster of Fender. Even the goons are done well, especially Nat Pendleton who always is great in any film he is in. I have to mention the role of the judge played by Spencer Charters who stars in Eddie Cantor’s first two films and later became a character actor. I always enjoy seeing him and his reactions and it was no different here.
The Golden Fleecing is simply fun, with some cleverness sprinkled throughout. Between the writing of the female characters and the effort that Ayres puts into Henry, it is most certainly worth a watch. The movie is not Ayres’ best performance and perhaps it was good for him to stick to more dramatic roles, but I would have loved to see him in more comedies. It is no His Girl Friday or My Favorite Wife, both from the same year and both starring the delectable Cary Grant, but if you’re looking for a fun, quick, and easy watch, look no further than The Golden Fleecing. 4/5 stars!
Letterboxd Featured Review: “i’m the latest victim of lew ayres’s messy hair and beautiful puppy dog eyes in this film,” newsradio
Referenced Films: The Golden Fleecing (1940), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Dr. Kildare series, Holiday (1938), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), His Girl Friday (1940), My Favorite Wife (1940)
Have you watched The Golden Fleecing? What did you think of Lew Ayres in a comedy? Do you like this format for my reviews more than the previous one? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love Lew in this one. He is so charming!