The Golden Fleecing

Henry Twinkle (Lew Ayers) is a naïve life insurance salesman who unknowingly sells a $50,000 policy to a crook named Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan). This puts a kibosh on his plans to marry his girl, secretary Mary Blake (Rita Johnson). When he realizes his mistake, he understands he has a vested interest in the continuing health of Fender, who is wanted dead or alive.

This is the comedic crux of the plot, which has the hapless Twinkle trying to salvage his relationship while dealing with the fugitive Fender. There are some good moments, like the scene where he tries to get arrested for speeding.

Johnson and Ayers are a good pair, though Twinkle's cluelessness is a little annoying. Fender is humanized by Nolan's portrayal, not just a ruthless rogue. He pairs well with Virginia Grey, who plays his intellectually superior moll.

At the time of this filming, Ayers was married to Ginger Rogers. And his career was all about multiple portrayals of Dr. Kildare ---quite a different character from Henry Twinkle.

Bumbling salesman Henry Twinkle manages to sell a big $50k life policy. His girlfriend Mary Blake pushes him to get a raise so that they can get married. That's when he reads in the newspaper about his big customer Gus Fender being a criminal with a $25k bounty on his head. The insurance company is in danger of losing a big payout and Henry is sent to track down Gus. Gus must not die. Gus' girl Lila Hanley contacts him and he does a deal with Gus.

Henry Twinkle is pretty fun to start off with. The silly premise seems full of potential fun. I can see a fun buddy road comedy coming out of this where Henry finds Gus and spends the rest of the movie bumbling his way into saving Gus over and over again. The plot gets a little too complicated with the bounty and the deal with Gus, not in a good way. The sitcom writing is a little flat and Henry is too pathetic to be funny. Lew Ayres may not be the one to pull off this comedic role. He grows more and more annoying in his handwringing cluelessness. The acting is all very broad. In the end, Henry's hemming and hawing is too pathetic. He's not funny and the movie falls flat.

This is a surprisingly fun and funny comedy.And I recall having heard the name of the lead actor, Lew Ayres,who in this film is playing one Henry Twinkle.This is the first time I have seen Lew Ayres and he certainly has star quality.

The story is about an insurance clerk who arranges a policy for what is later discovered to be a crime boss with a reward on his head. The insurance company only discovers that fact later so Henry Twinkle,the clerk, needs to keep the insured alive and the movie is all about the 'keystone cops' type of adventures of Henry in trying to protect the double-crossing boss.

Lew Ayres plays a patsy and does it very well and the first 5 minutes of the movie is quite hilarious as is much of the rest of the film. Often the picture is slap stick but thats the nature of it.

Great supporting cast and all the players are presented with style and class in 1940's super smartly tailored suits and gowns and they are all beautifully groomed as well. Modern movies could learn a lot about elegance from this type of picture.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable comedy, worth at least:

7/10.

Lew Ayres stars with Rita Johnson, Lloyd Nolan, and Virginia Grey in "The Golden Fleecing," from 1940.

Ayres plays Henry Twinkle, a life insurance salesman who sells Gus Fender (Lloyd Nolan) a $50,000 life insurance policy. This impresses his boss, until he realizes that Gus Fender is a racketeer. His boss nearly has a coronary and tells Henry that he'd better keep Gus alive. Henry goes to Fender, and the two of them hatch a scheme where Henry puts Fender in jail and collects the $25,000 reward. He then is supposed to turn it over to Fender, who wants to make bail and get out of the country. That's where the problems begin.

Lew Ayres was very cute, and he's funny as a guy who just wants to marry his fiancé Mary (Rita Johnson) but becomes entangled with gangsters, with Mary becoming jealous of Fender's girlfriend (Grey).

Nothing special, with Fender's army of goofy associates, headed by Nat Pendleton, providing some comedy.

"I'm tired of doing things I wasn't cut out for," says a weary Lew Ayres at the end of this movie--and one can certainly sympathize. From the first frame Ayres is made to do things no one was cut out for--to act like a simpleton in an exaggerated fashion that is supposed to be funny. His hair is always tousled, and he is always looking sheepishly to one side or at the floor. If the movie had been made a few years later, one would have thought he had been told to imitate Red Skelton.

Hard to believe that S J Perelman was the author of this flat dialogue, which isn't helped by the slow pacing. And Ayres isn't helped by a fiancee played by Rita Johnson, who is as boring as she is common. The far more attractive and charming Virginia Grey is around, as a gangster's girl, but the goody-goody Ayres isn't tempted to change sides.