Erik Rhodes

Erik Rhodes

Birth : 1906-02-10, El Reno, Oklahoma Territory, USA

Death : 1990-02-17

History

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.

Profile

Erik Rhodes

Movies

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender
Self (archive footage)
A 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.
On Your Toes
Konstantin Morrisine
A Russian dance company agrees to stage the new ballet written by a vaudeville hoofer.
Dramatic School
Georges Mounier
Aspiring 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.
Say It in French
Irving
An 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....
Meet the Girls
Maurice Leon
Entertainers lose their jobs and their fares from Honolulu back to San Francisco so they must become stowaways.
Mysterious Mr. Moto
David Scott-Frensham
The Japanese detective rounds up a league of assassins for Scotland Yard.
The Canary Comes Across
Canary Dillon
A prisoner with a good singing voice escapes, only to grow jealous when an opera singer who looks like him is delivered back to the prison and receives attention, especially from Ann, the warden's daughter who leads the prison glee club.
Beg, Borrow or Steal
Lefevre
We 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.
Fight for Your Lady
Anton Spadissimo
Wrestling trainer puts himself in charge of a singer's love life when the singer is jilted by a rich girl.
Music for Madame
Spaghetti Nadzio
An 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.
Woman Chases Man
Henri Saffron
A pretty architect devises a wild scheme to convince a handsome millionaire to fund a new housing development project.
Criminal Lawyer
Tony Bandini
Barry 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.
Smartest Girl in Town
Baron Enrico Torene
A girl in search of a rich husband mistakes a millionaire for a male model.
Second Wife
Dave Bennet
Kenneth discovers that his son by his first wife is ill in a remote Swiss village, and is forced to leave Wife Number Two alone during childbirth.
One Rainy Afternoon
Count Alfredo Donstelli
Suave 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.
Special Investigator
Benny Gray
A lawyer changes from defending public enemies to bringing them to justice after his brother is killed.
Chatterbox
Archie Fisher
Teenage 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.
Two in the Dark
Carlo Gheet
Ford Adams regains consciousness in Boston, bloody and suffering from amnesia. Information he eventually uncovers (with the help of Marie Smith) connects him to a well-known producer--who's just been murdered.
Another Face
Grimm
The 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!
Top Hat
Alberto Beddini
Showman 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.
Old Man Rhythm
Frank Rochet
Romantic rivalries between father and son enrolled at the same college.
A Night at the Biltmore Bowl
Erik Rhodes
Join vocalists broadcasting from the Biltmore Bowl in Los Angeles.
The Nitwits
George Clark
A would-be songwriter and a would-be inventor run a cigar stand and get mixed up in the murder of a song publisher.
A Night at the Ritz
Leopold
A PR man talks a swanky hotel into hiring his girlfriend's brother as chef.
Charlie Chan in Paris
Max Corday
Charlie'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.
The Gay Divorcee
Rodolfo Tonetti
Seeking 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.
Give Her a Ring
A telephonist falls for her employer.