Klondike Annie

Moviecut—Klondike Annie

source: Klondike Annie

Despite I wasn't from those golden era, in fact my background starts on the seventies, as a die hard cinephile when I'd hear about the fabulous Mae West I have to confess that l've stayed really impressed when l realize such greatness, what a woman!!! Then I began to study his career, she was the first Goddess on the thirties, bolded and sexy impregnating on collective imaginary of the men, in this movie she around 44 years, she running away from Frisco in a cargo ship of the rough Captain Bull Brackett (Victor Maclaglen), along the way she meets with a Christian Sister Annie Alden who intent to help a church at Nome, sadly she dies before, Rose (West) having wanted by the police changes places with Annie, at the ground she has to play an opposite character henceforth, well-craft plot, a perfect vehicle to Mae West, after her came up, several Goddess, nevertheless Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe stay closest as sexy symbols, my wife always wonder why l love all them so much, I guess she is jealous!!! Resume: First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

For plenty of reasons, there's something about Mae West's films that just spell "provocative." This isn't very surprising, considering she was at the forefront of 1930s sexuality, and had gotten in trouble a few times in the past for using this to her advantage. I already talked about a movie with her some months ago called I'm No Angel, which co-stars a young Cary Grant. While West still radiated lewdness in that movie, this film from 1936 is probably even more tasteless. Don't get me wrong the movie actually does have a storyline and its share of interesting (and even enchanting) moments, but the reason it has a negative reputation in my opinion is because it has to do with religion, the involvement of which in a sexually driven story is rarely a good idea. The movie starts, strangely enough, in San Francisco's chinatown. Rose Carlton (Mae West) works as something of a singer at what looks like a casino, and has a sizable array of outlandish outfits. Behind her glamorous exterior, she isn't happy with her job. Her boss, Chan Lo, is reluctant to let her go anywhere or do anything without him knowing about it, as she is his mistress. One day, Rose kills him and flees the city on a ship heading to the icy fringes of the north. The captain of the ship, Bull Brackett, is smitten with Rose the second she comes onboard, but soon finds out about her murder. Later, a woman named Annie also boards the ship, and because she's essentially a missionary, Rose gains respect for her. However, Annie dies before the ship reaches its destination. Rose impersonates Annie in order to both avoid detection from the cops and to save a certain alaskan church from bankruptcy. In a complete role reversal, Rose transitions from an alluring, wisecracking harlot to one of the church's most admired members. As "sister Annie", she raises a lot of money for the church because she is a talented singer. While in alaska, "Annie" starts having an affair with Jack Forrest (Philip Reed), who is a member of law enforcement and is supposed to be arresting Rose, but doesn't. To make a long story short, Rose gets back on the ship she came to alaska on and tells Brackett she has to go back to california and admit her crime because Annie would have wanted that. As stated earlier, this movie has quite a number of scenes in it that would be lewd even today, which is surprising since this is not a pre code film. For one thing, because it starts in chinatown, it has a lot of instances where asian actors are depicted as being subservient to white ones, and West's relationship with Chan is a good example of this. Aside from that, there's also the fact that West later becomes a member of a church and attempts to intertwine her activities there with her promiscuity. Like most Mae West movies, Klondike Annie was subjected to a large amount of censorship, basically just because she stars in it. About 8 minutes worth of footage was cut from the movie, and the cut portion is now gone forever. One of the cut scenes allegedly has Annie dress as a prostitute when she is still alive. To summarize, Klondike Annie was a good enough movie, but only mostly because Mae (and her singing voice) carry the whole thing. The movie is otherwise a curiosity.

This is another middling Mae West vehicle: though there's something approximating a plot in its case (involving her taking up the guise of a missionary!), this has the unfortunate effect of producing unwarranted sentimentality – consequently, the star's trademark sauciness gets downplayed – which, frankly, doesn't suit her in the least…or convince us for a second! At least, director Walsh vividly renders the turn-of-the-century atmosphere and changes of locale: we start in Chinatown, where Mae's the kept woman of an Oriental establishment owner, then spend a good deal of time aboard ship with rowdy captain Victor McLaglen – during which the real (and elderly) Sister Annie perishes from a heart attack – and, finally, settle in the titular gold-mining region – where the heroine above all turns the head of a young Mountie (actually after West for the death of her Asian master that occurs off-screen!) even if he believes her to be a pious woman. Needless to say, West's bubbly personality and smart business sense (acquired via her former capacity of world-renowned torch singer) turns around the mission's formerly pitiful fortunes – which even come to threaten the takings at the local saloon (especially since she's recruited many of the performers there to liven up her own "joint")! I was under the impression that KLONDIKE ANNIE was something like 80 minutes long (the Leslie Halliwell Film Guide even gives the running-time as 83), so that I was surprised when it abruptly ended – by having the star forsake the young career man for experienced lout McLaglen – at a little over 73 minutes in PAL mode (with a bit of research, I was able to determine that Image's presumably long out-of-print R1 DVD actually only ran for 76 minutes).

In 1915 Cecil B. DeMille did a silent film for Paramount called The Cheat. In it, Fannie Ward contracts a Shylock like debt for sexual favors in payment for borrowed money. Trying to kill the oriental who lent the money was deemed justifiable in the end. In that same tradition, Paramount and Mae West did Klondike Annie where she actually kills Harold Huber, the oriental she's involved with and escapes from San Francisco to Nome. Prejudice against orientals was rampant on our west coast during the Gay Nineties when this story takes place. Mae has two strokes of good luck, first in ship's captain Victor McLaglen who loves her any way and keeps her secret. Secondly she meets missionary Helen Jerome Eddy who is going to the wild north to head a mission in Nome. Eddy sickens and dies aboard ship, but she's the real deal as a missionary and it's the only time Mae West ever trod the straight and narrow. She escapes the police by taking the late Ms. Eddy's identity. I'm not sure how this one escaped the Code. Not the racial prejudice, mind you, but the fact that Mae and Victor live happily ever after and Mountie Philip Reed who also falls for Mae let's her go. You were not supposed to go unpunished under Code rules. Mae's as bold and brassy as ever. She's got the right buxom build for these parts as back then feminine ideal beauty was someone like Lillian Russell who had a bit of heft to her figure. Mae wrote the script as she did in most of her films and she wrote it with an awareness of the times she grew up in. Klondike Annie might not sit well with some audiences today, but it's also the sad truth about those times. Anyway, she's got fabulously sassy lines.

I've never been a huge fan of Mae West but watched this because it was directed by Raoul Walsh, a director who could usually be relied upon to deliver a few tricks to distinguish his work from the production line fodder that the Hollywood studios were churning out in the 30s. This one's a dull affair though, curiously flat with no spark at all between West and McLaglen as the woman of dubious character and the rowdy sea captain who spirits her away from an evil Chinaman. It's difficult to understand why the plump and plain Miss West was considered such a sex symbol in her day. For much of this film she doesn't so much have lines to deliver as a series of one-liners that fall far short of her more famous saucy quips. Definitely one for completists only.

My only reason of watching this rather trifling Mae West vehicle is that the director is Raoul Walsh. I've never been a big Mae West fan, though I thoroughly liked "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel." I had some hopes for "Klondike Annie," but it lamentably turned out one of her dullest efforts. Mae's suggestive one-liners are surprisingly exhausting; her characterization of "the Frisco Doll" is rather fake and unremarkable. Walsh's direction is curiously flat and there's very little of his trademark exuberance to wither the contrived silliness of Mae's script (adapted from her own play "The Frisco Kate"). I saw it back to back with another Mae West movie called "Every Day's a Holiday"(1937). Though Walsh is a vastly superior director than Edward Sutherland, I much prefer that one because it's breezier, funnier, and more enjoyable. The only good or likable things in "Klondike Annie" are Mae's romantic liaison with the rugged Victor Mclaglen as the rough, grumbling captain of the ship, and the moment when Mae impersonates the Salvation Army missionary. The rest is forgettable

One interesting aspect that hasn't been touched upon is the fact that Mae's character of Rose actually shows some genuine affection for the real missionary named Annie before Annie's death- a rare thing for Mae to do for another woman in a movie. I wonder if perhaps, Annie may have even been slightly based on Mae's own deceased, supportive mother? The movie plays like a more lighthearted version of 'Sadie Thompson' with Mae's character using religion rather than vice versa- and it's a good touch that the captain is actually far less of a pushover than many of Mae's other leading men. He actually tries to deny and fight his affection for her (rare indeed in a Mae West movie). But Victor McLaglin was too tough to have been believable as a pushover and it's a nice touch at the end that Rose admits he's 'no oil painting' but that he's 'an interesting monster' when admitting her affection for him. Also, it needs to be noted that at no point does the action ever venture to the Klondike- despite the movie's title. I suppose they wanted to keep Rose near the ocean (and the captain) instead of having her venture into the interior- giving the captain no reason to stay around. Perhaps 'Nome Annie' didn't suit Mae (who, curiously referred to the movie as 'Klondike Lou' in her autobiography - in spite of there having been no character of that name appearing in the move).

Whether or not the Code had anything to do with it, this film tells a different kind of story from the enjoyment of sexual power in many of Mae West's other films. It's a story of moral redemption - very old-fashioned, and sincere. Mae's character can deploy her sexuality to use men, but she then becomes trapped by their jealousy - first Chan Lo, then Bull Brackett, whose closing declaration that he would kill her rather than lose her echoes the threats of Chan Lo at the start of the film. But the story doesn't just cycle round to the same point - the Doll's character has traversed a very large arc in the meantime. The real Sister Annie, whose identity the Doll assumes after her death, has succeeded in awakening the Doll's conscience, and this brings the realisation that she must face up to her past. So when she surrenders to Bull in the end, it's not just to get what she needs from him - conveyance back to San Francisco to face trial for the murder of Chan Lo - but also a great sacrifice, as she is giving up the handsome lawman who would have sacrificed his career for her. Another thing that's different is that the genuine relationships are between Mae and women. There is mutual trust and affection between the Doll and her maid Fah Wong. When the Doll uses Bull first it's on Fah Wong's behalf. But the pivotal relationship is between the Doll and the real Annie, which turns the course of the Doll's life completely around. The Doll was a good sort from the beginning - a tart with a heart of gold - as we see from her relationships with her Chinese servants, who are all willing to take great risks for her. The measure of her rapport is that she speaks Chinese with them (but of course the dialogue is in English when the audience needs to know what is being said). Since she killed Chan Lo in self defence, and since the servants will no doubt vouch for her, she has a good chance of a happy ending - if she can escape the clutches of Bull, which can hardly be beyond our resourceful heroine. Taken on its own terms, this is a very watchable film, with scenes of comedy and jeopardy, great musical numbers, convincing acting from Mae West as the Doll goes through her emotional and spiritual trials, and terrific support from Victor McLagan as Bull.