[Read more…] about Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions
Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions
Mae Clarke
Hidden Hollywood: Mae Clarke, Girl, Gangster, Grapefruit
Most actors are remembered for their unique personae. Clark Gable was a man’s man. The humorous gleam in his eye sent daggers to the knees of women everywhere. Bette Davis practically cornered the market on the deeply neurotic woman clawing at the boundaries of love with baroque fury. Gary Cooper was the classic taciturn American, a solid, self-confident Yankee who spoke eloquently through his silences. Marilyn Monroe is the paradigm of the woman as vulnerable child waiting to be rescued by a knight in shining armor.
Of course Fay Wray, who played in over eighty motion pictures, is only remembered for her role in King Kong. Thus, for better or worse, Wray is the eternally shrieking woman.
Less common is the actor who is identified and remembered for a single brief scene.
[Read more…] about Hidden Hollywood: Mae Clarke, Girl, Gangster, Grapefruit
Mae Clarke, Jimmy Cagney: The Tricks of the Trade
In Lady Killer (1933) Dan Quigley (Jimmy Cagney) a movie theater usher, gets fired and drifts into a life of petty crime with a gang of con men and their slinky, hardboiled gun moll, Myra, played by the incomparable Mae Clarke. On the lam from the police and the gang who betrays him, Dan flees to California where he ends up as an extra in the movies, and then, presto, he’s a high-living movie star.
Cagney and Clarke seem to be having a swell time making this movie, building on their partnership which started in The Public Enemy (1931) when Cagney smashed a grapefruit into Mae’s face, 41 seconds that, for better or worse, has given Mae, a great but emotionally fragile actress, Hollywood immortality.
Growing up on the tough streets of New York, Cagney’s friends were Jewish kids who taught the Irish lad their mother tongue. Thus, in this wonderful little comedy, Cagney unexpectedly tosses off some Yiddish which roughly translates as: “My ass is killing me.”
[Read more…] about Mae Clarke, Jimmy Cagney: The Tricks of the Trade
Mae Clarke: Gangster, Grapefruit, Forty One Seconds to Immortality
Jimmy Cagney smashes a grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s face, The Public Enemy, 1931.
Most actors are remembered for their unique personae. Clark Gable was a man’s man. The humorous gleam in his eye sent daggers to the knees of women everywhere. Bette Davis practically cornered the market on the deeply neurotic woman clawing at the boundaries of love with Baroque fury. Gary Cooper was the classic taciturn American, a solid, self-confident Yankee who spoke eloquently through his silences. Marilyn Monroe is still the paradigm of the woman as vulnerable child waiting to be rescued by a knight in shining armor.
Of course Fay Wray, who played in over eighty motion pictures, is only remembered for her role in King Kong. Thus she is, for better or for worse, the shrieking woman, for all time.
Less common is the actor who is identified and remembered for a single brief scene.
No doubt, Mae Clarke, (1910-1992) real name Violet Mary Klotz, a superb actress who unfailingly revealed complex layers of character in her naturalistic performances, would prefer to be remembered for her finely tuned portrayal of the doomed Myra Deauville, the sweet chorus girl turned desperate prostitute, in the 1931 pre-Code, Waterloo Bridge. But the 1940 version with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor made Clarke’s film all but invisible. This is a shame for Clarke’s version, directed by James Whale, is excellent, combining gritty realism with lyrical impressionism.
To read my entire article, please go to Big Hollywood.