T.G.I.F.

Theda

 

Gail

Isa

Frances


Start the weekend with a smolder, darlings.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Calling a Spade a Spade

Have you possums seen the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon? It's not as slick, and not nearly as fast-paced as the more famous '41 version; but it has a pre-Code sexiness that not even the heat between Bogie and Mary Astor can match. Plus, with Thelma Todd and Una Merkel in the cast, how can it be bad? But the topper is birthday boy Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade.


Cortez' portrayal of Sam Spade has been described as having "just the right mix of sleaze and charm," which pretty much sums up Cortez' basic appeal. He was a major star during the "Latin Lover" craze of the 1920's and 30's - even though he was born Jacob Kranz in Vienna! Cortez starred (top-billed, yet) with Garbo in Torrent (1926), her first Hollywood picture; and eased nicely into the Deco Thirties, suavely romancing the likes of Gail Patrick, Dolores Del Rio, and Kay Francis in a number of glamorous, if inconsequential films.

HER HUSBAND LIES (1937), with GAIL PATRICK

WONDER BAR (1934), with DOLORES DEL RIO

THE HOUSE ON 56TH STREET (1933), with KAY FRANCIS

By the end of the Thirties, however, Cortez' career was on a downward slide, his brand of slickly-tailored, slightly dangerous elegance a relic of the Deco age. Wartime America demanded a different kind of hero, and Ricardo Cortez was no Bogart - his successor in the role of Sam Spade. Cortez eventually retired from films by the end of the 1940's, and became a highly successful stockbroker on Wall Street. He passed away in 1976, at age 78.

RICARDO CORTEZ
September 19, 1900 - April 28, 1977

Harlequin Romance

Gail Force

"I just don't have an actress's soul. I think mine has a dollar sign on it." - GAIL PATRICK

Cool, collected, chic - those were Gail Patrick's trademarks in her films of the 1930's and 1940's. She appeared in everything from musicals (Mississippi, 1935) to westerns (Wanderer of the Wasteland, 1935) to whodunits (The Preview Murder Mystery, 1936), and the majority of her output was in "B" productions - but the silky, professional elegance she brought to her roles as the haughty second lead in a quartet of "A"-list comedies cemented Patrick's reputation as the Art Deco Bitch nonpareil. She was Carole Lombard's scheming sister in My Man Godfrey (1936); Ginger Rogers' sparring partner in Stage Door (1937); Irene Dunne's rival for Cary Grant's affections in My Favorite Wife (1940); and, in Love Crazy (1941), Myrna Loy's nemesis vis-à-vis William Powell.

GAIL PATRICK IN COSTUME FOR LOVE CRAZY (1941)

Strangely, Patrick's career stalled during the 1940's. Perhaps it was that lack of an actress' soul, and ambition; or because her brittle, satin-smooth, cold-as-ice persona was too firmly rooted in the Deco Thirties to make the translation to the gutsier, wartime Forties. Retiring from films in 1948, she successfully transitioned to the business world, running her own children's clothing company and selling her product (all self-designed) to her movie star friends and colleagues. She then became a very successful producer, along with her third husband, Thomas Cornwell Jackson, of the Perry Mason television series.

GAIL PATRICK JACKSON WITH PERRY MASON STAR RAYMOND BURR AND AUTHOR EARLE STANLEY GARDNER

Obviously, Patrick retained the patrician good looks and regal bearing which made her a movie star, albeit a second-tier one. Those qualities were also on display in our last Mystery Guest entry - and it would have been a clean sweep of wrong guesses, had dark horse Stewie G not nabbed the prize at the finish line. Congratulations - your harlequin unitard is on the way, Stewie!

GAIL PATRICK
June 20, 1911 - July 6, 1980

We Worship Her

Gail Patrick was the ultimate Deco Queen: all high gloss, sleek surfaces, sharp edges; born to wear satin on the bias, marabou in the morning, and ermine all year round. She was the deliciously bitchy, witchy second lead in classic films like My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), and My Favorite Wife (1940); and after she retired from acting, became a lady producer late in life -- she and her third husband co-produced the hugely successful Perry Mason television program. One suspects that Raymond Burr worshipped her, too.