
Acting
Erik Rhodes
Born 1906-02-10 · El Reno, Oklahoma Territory, USA
Erik Rhodes (born Ernest Sharpe; February 10, 1906 - February 17, 1990) was an American stage, film, and television actor best remembered for his comedic performances as delightful hyperactive Italian gentlemen in the classic Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Hollywood musicals The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935). With a good baritone voice, he was successful, both prior to and subsequent his film career, in Broadway musicals.
Acting credits
7.3Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace's hotel room, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.
Top Hat
1935
5.3A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
1997
6.9Seeking a divorce from her absentee husband, Mimi Glossop travels to an English seaside resort. There she falls in love with dancer Guy Holden, whom she later mistakes for the corespondent her lawyer hired.
The Gay Divorcee
1934
4.5A Russian dance company agrees to stage the new ballet written by a vaudeville hoofer.
On Your Toes
1939
6.5Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary, and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming the state governor. Having dinner at Betty's home, she maneuvers him, while he is drunk, into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial, and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.
Criminal Lawyer
1937
6.2The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard.
Mysterious Mr. Moto
1938
5.0Suave French actor Philippe Martin provokes a scandal when, in a darkened theater, he mistakes young Monique for his mistress, Yvonne, and tries to kiss her. Charged with assault, the quick-thinking Philippe claims it's French tradition to do as he did, and is let go. To his surprise, Philippe learns that Monique has paid his fine. As the tabloids exploit the situation, Monique dates Philippe, until a photo appears of him kissing Yvonne.
One Rainy Afternoon
1936
6.3An Italian immigrant singer, Nino, hoping to succeed in Hollywood, falls in with a gang of crooks who use his talent to distract everyone at a party while they steal the jewels.
Music for Madame
1937
6.6Charlie's visit to Paris, ostensibly a vacation, is really a mission to investigate a bond-forgery racket. But his agent, apache dancer Nardi is killed before she can tell him much. The case, complicated by a false murder accusation for banker's daughter Yvette, climaxes with a strange journey through the Paris sewers.
Charlie Chan in Paris
1935
5.6Wrestling trainer puts himself in charge of a singer's love life when the singer is jilted by a rich girl.
Fight for Your Lady
1937
7.0Romantic rivalries between father and son enrolled at the same college.
Old Man Rhythm
1935
6.0We find con-man Ingraham Steward living by his wits by steering wealthy Paris visitors to sellers of fake paintings and other assorted dodges. He and his wife, Agatha, have been separated for 15 years, but he promises to give their daughter, Joyce, a lavish wedding at his "château" in France. The fact that he doesn't have a château in France is just a minor trifle. He induces the caretaker, Bill Cherau, of a large country estate to allow it to be used for the wedding. The wedding party arrives and Bill falls madly in love with Joyce and she with him, but a gal has gotta do what a gal has gotta do, and her intended marriage to stuffed-shirt Horace Miller stays on the books. But Steward has a change of heart and he tells one and all that he and his friends, Von Gersdorff, Lefevre, Iznamof, Clifton Summitt and Sasch, are all frauds and crooks. Horace and his family stalk out, which is just fine with Joyce as her true love, the caretaker, is waiting on the grounds.
Beg, Borrow or Steal
1937
6.1When Mr. X (Walter Able) wakes up in the city park with amnesia, bloody and apparently connected to a murder of a well-known producer. Fast talking Marie Smith (Margot Grahame) takes pity on him, they solve the case and discover his identity.
Two in the Dark
1936
6.5A PR man talks a swanky hotel into hiring his girlfriend's brother as chef.
A Night at the Ritz
1935
5.0Entertainers lose their jobs and their fares from Honolulu back to San Francisco so they must become stowaways.
Meet the Girls
1938
A telephonist falls for her employer.
Give Her a Ring
1934
4.8The surgeon who did the job was dead. Only the nurse knew what this gangster looked like in his new face. He learned about women from her!
Another Face
1935
5.9A pretty architect devises a wild scheme to convince a handsome millionaire to fund a new housing development project.
Woman Chases Man
1937
7.5An American golf pro falls in love with a woman while visiting France; before long they are married and in the US. Upon their arrival, they are dismayed to discover that the golfer's parents have arranged for him to marry a wealthy socialite so they can use her money to support their business....
Say It in French
1938
6.5Aspiring actress Louise Muban attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works at a dreary factory assembling gas meters at night. She daydreams and "acts" her way through life, and her fellow students at school begin to suspect her stories are just that - fabrications. After Louise begins to weave an actual meeting with a debonair playboy into a fantasy of club dates and romance, her classmate Nana discovers the lie when she too meets the playboy. Nana sets a trap for Louise, and the result is an end to one fantasy and the realization of another.
Dramatic School
1938
6.7A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.
The Nitwits
1935
7.0Teenage orphan Jenny Yates becomes starstruck when a revival of an old Victorian melodrama passes through her small New England town, to the disapproval of her stern grandfather, Uriah. Stowing away in the car of Philip Greene, a wealthy young man working with the theater troupe, Jenny talks her way into the play's lead role. But director Archie Fisher doesn't tell her that the new version of the play is meant as a spoof.
Chatterbox
1936
5.4A lawyer changes from defending public enemies to bringing them to justice after his brother is killed.
Special Investigator
1936
8.0Join vocalists broadcasting from the Biltmore Bowl in Los Angeles.
A Night at the Biltmore Bowl
1935