She Blogged By Night

This entry was more difficult than I imagined it would be: there's simply not much information about actress Mae Clarke out there. If anyone remembers Clarke nowadays, it's because of her participation in the famous grapefruit scene from "The Public Enemy" (1931).

Mae Clarke entered movies in 1929, and by 1931, she should have been a superstar. She had a featured role of Molly in the original movie production of "The Front Page"; the movie has been remade several times, most recently in 1974 with Carol Burnett in the role of Molly. That same year she appeared in "The Public Enemy", was the female lead in "Frankenstein", and had the lead role in "Waterloo Bridge" (pictured).

"Waterloo Bridge" is the story of Myra (Mae Clarke), an out-of-work American chorus girl who finds herself walking the streets of London just to afford the rent. Clarke is pictured here in "Waterloo Bridge" with character actress Doris Lloyd.

During WWI, Myra runs into a young American soldier named Roy (Douglass Montgomery, credited here as Kent Douglass) on furlough and they strike up an immediate friendship. In no time at all, this young man has fallen for Myra. Complications arise when Myra's bitter embarrassment at her lifestyle refuses to allow her to tell Roy the whole truth, although it's clear Myra has a much lower opinion of herself than anyone else does.

This is a terrific film that was presumed lost for decades. It's now available on DVD from Turner Classic Movies, on their two-DVD set "Forbidden Hollywood".

Mae Clarke's career almost immediately began to deteriorate. Director James Whale cast her in many of his films, but they were not always critically or commercially successful. Besides her appearance in Whale's films, she was cast in several run-of-the-mill filler movies in supporting roles. Clarke had a modern, naturalistic style and a believable intensity, and it's hard not to wonder why she was so underutilized. The only clue is from Leonard Maltin's film encyclopedia, which says "bad luck and personal problems" forced her into B movies by the mid-1930s.

Clarke has a host of smaller roles in B films from about 1935 to 1950, at which point she fell into uncredited or bit parts in larger productions such as "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950) and "Pat and Mike" (1952). Here she's pictured in a bit speaking part in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952), a movie that spoofed the era that Clarke was most famous in. Clarke, on the right next to veteran character actress Margaret Bert, is hairdresser for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who has just left her dressing room in a fabulous Marie Antoinette costume. Lamont has been fussing to her hairdresser about the wig she's forced to wear, asking, "What dope would wear a thing like this?" This is one of many "Singin' in the Rain" in-jokes: Norma Shearer's wigs in "Marie Antoinette" (1938) were famous for their size and audacity. The rooms behind Clarke and Bert are actual dressing rooms used by Shearer during the filming of "Marie Antoinette".

Clarke's character roles increased in size (and in credit!), thanks in part to jobs in television, in the 1950s. By the 1960s, however, she had almost no work, save for a couple of tiny parts in "F Troop" and "Batman". According to IMDb trivia, in the 1980s she was in a show at Universal Studios. Mae Clarke passed away in 1992.

Links:
Mae Clarke in "Frankenstein"
IMDb entry for Mae Clarke
"Forbidden Hollywood" at Amazon

This post originally appeared at my other blog, Stacia's Stuff.